Crossfire
by Sith Lord Darth Revan
Summary: A Firefly/Serenity and KOTOR crossover.
1. Prologue: Mistakes

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Explanation: Crossfire is a simple crossover between KOTOR and Firefly/Serenity. After watching reruns of the show I rediscovered my enjoyment of it and decided to give a new fic a shot, since my old ones are stagnating. Spoilers through all of Firefly and Serenity and spoilers for all of KOTOR I and II. Hope you enjoy.

Summary: On the edge of known space, a brain-damaged mind-reading genius comes across another, both running from their pasts and both offering a solution to each other's problems. Takes place during Serenity and after Darth Nihilus' attack on Kataar and Revan's disappearance from the Republic.

Prologue: Mistakes

The evil he had felt within his very soul so many years before, at the end of the great war Mandalore had thrust upon the galaxy had been so mindlessly vile, so callously indifferent that he had mistaken it as something that couldn't be beaten. Mistaken the evils he _felt_ within the Trayus Core on Malachor V as an endless Empire of Sith that would burn their galaxy to ashes. The reality of it all nearly crushed Revan when he returned a half-decade later to that dark portion of space alone and discovered the evil Empire he had feared so much, sacrificed so much as a Dark Lord of the Sith for was merely a grouping of several hundred worlds and moons orbiting a handful of stars gathered in a small cluster and that the evil he had felt was isolated within the small little _verse_ as he'd heard the locals call it, cut off from the rest of the galaxy and lacking any faster-than-light capabilities. A look of complete disbelief had colored the Prodigal Knight's face as he stared at the hologram of the system, his mind going completely blank.

He'd killed countless billions to reform the galaxy into something more primal, something that would be harsh enough and brutal enough to survive the evils he had sensed from this small gathering of stars and it had amounted to one of the darkest periods in the galaxy. He'd turned his back on his heart when he'd left Bastila to follow the warnings his fragmented memories had presented him and as he reclaimed the memories lost to him, he wished he hadn't. It would have been easier to be pure evil, to be the Dark Lord and monster, only wanting power and not wanting to safeguard the galaxy against a threat that would have amounted to little more than a skirmish if he'd been smart enough to actually look at it with his own eyes instead of trusting the Force.

The Force had warned Revan of the darkness in this small corner of the galaxy, had warned him of pains and tortures beyond conscience. The Jedi General Revan Qel-Droma had not even had the decency to lose his mind or fall to the Darkside and had simply turned on the galaxy. He had listened to the whispers of Sith left over from Exar Kun's war of a vast Sith Empire rules by the remnants of the once powerful species of Sith, True Sith that had fled the bombardments of Korriban and Ziost a thousand years before. Revan had listened to those Sith, the ones who had pressed Mandalore the Ultimate into war and he had been taken for a fool as Mandalore had. Darth Revan's war had left the Republic and Jedi Order so weakened that they would fall on their own, without outside interference. That had been when the Sith that had warned Revan of the falsified True Sith had struck. Assassins from Malachor V were led by the Lord of Pain while the Lord of Hunger consumed the very essence of life from the Jedi and Miralukans of Kataar. The crippled Jedi Order scattered and fell apart, less than a hundred from an order of tens of thousands survived the Jedi Civil War and they were forced to scatter and hide in the face of Darth Sion and Darth Nihilus' war. The two were not fallen Jedi from Revan's war, but relics leftover from Exar Kun's and they had played Revan as a pawn, just as the Jedi Order had after they'd captured him. His own Master Kreia had fallen at his side, becoming Darth Traya and she had been swept aside by Nihilus and Sion's bid for power, lost to the darkness of a dead world, surrounded by a dead fleet of opposing forces that had long since fallen still and silent; witness to a battle that had ended a race, a planet and a good man and started another war.

Exile was a form of punishment, a means of atonement for crimes that did not warrant death, though Revan knew his crimes warranted death countless times over. He had been a monster, a willing mass murderer and his misguided attempts to strengthen had only weakened. Tearing out the _Ebon Hawk's _main computer core, Revan wiped away all of the data of his flight to this corner of space, taking away all traces and programming in a new set of coordinates on the opposite end of the galaxy. Programming the navcomputer to make a series of blind hyperspace jumps to that area of space, Revan then programmed a memory-wipe for the computer. It would automatically lock after the wipe took place and nothing could recover the data once that was finished.

"Concerned Observation: Master's plan is flawed. This HK unit as well as the T3 unit would have adequate points of reference to return to this area of space. Stubborn Declaration: It is this HK unit's duty to safeguard the Master from harm and the security risk of leaving this unit functional would require my continued presence alongside Master. The T3 unit is inferior to my design and can be-"  
Revan called on the Force, sending a thin tendril of red-orange energy towards the assassination droid that shorted out its functions and destroyed its circuitry. Moving the immobile droid to a storage bay, Revan ripped the memory core, removing the physical hardware that would recount the droid's points of reference with where they currently were in space. Destroying the evidence so HK could never find his way back no matter how well he was repaired, Revan sealed and locked the storage bay, turning to T3-M4 as the small droid gave a nervous beep.

"If you know what is good for you, you'll forget what Bastila told you to do and let me wipe your memory too."  
A forlorn whistle came from the small droid before it powered down and Revan removed T3's memory core and repeated the process. The former Sith Lord then programmed a false set of coordinates deep within the droid's memory core so that anyone who would come looking for him would find themselves as far away as possible while remaining within the galaxy instead. Setting a timed restart for T3, Revan moved the small droid to the _Ebon Hawk's _cockpit, sighing as he stood and glanced in the direction of the galactic core. He would accept exile for his crimes because he couldn't end his own life, no matter how much the despair closed in at the thought of how completely he'd been fooled and Revan moved to his bunk, collecting a change of clothing, his armor and a blaster pistol and rifle to supplement his lightsabers. Casting one last glance at the empty ship, Revan moved to the escape pods and took a seat, strapping himself in and closing his eyes with a sigh. There was a fairly lush world on the edge of the _verse_ that was uninhabited and Revan could make due there for a while, in solitude. Programming the escape pod to take him to the world designated Miranda from the encrypted files he'd leeched off the Cortex, Revan closed his eyes as the pod separated from the _Hawk_ and he allowed himself to succumb to the pain and despair and agony and rage he felt in the space around him as the _Ebon Hawk_ vanished in a hyperspace tunnel, along with his previous lives. In hindsight it might've been a better idea to pick a populated world, since Miranda had its own dark secrets.

TBC...


	2. Chapter 1: Two By Two

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 1: Two By Two

Two months. It had taken Revan Qel-Droma two months to decipher the two primary languages of the Alliance and two months to make the Cortex console he was working on operational. An old Alliance military facility with a transmitter tower strong enough to reach every edge of the verse housed the former Sith Lord and he looked through the strange Chinese and English writings as he tried to learn first how to fix the equipment and second how to use it. Gifted with mechanics, Revan was able to repair a Cortex console that had simply fallen apart from disrepair. Working through the network re-opened to him since first leaving the _Ebon Hawk_ and his old life behind him, Revan's attempts to connect were met with a firewall. With a frown, the self-exiled Jedi tried to work past the block and was rewarded simply with a screen capture of a blue sun that pulsed on the aged console randomly. Sitting back with a sigh of annoyance, Revan absently spun one of his lightsabers in his fingers, glancing out the nearby window to look over Miranda's setting sun.

His initial scans of the world were indeed correct in that it was uninhabited, but Revan had found it unsettling that decade-old corpses littered the world, their slow decay a result of something he hadn't had time to discover. Trying to get a Cortex connection had been his first priority after double-checking that the air he was breathing was harmless and Revan kept his mask on, filters active out of paranoia. Paranoia kept you alive.

Miranda lacked any form of animal life as well and Revan lived off of sealed foodstuffs of protein when his own meager supplies had run out. Using a portable scanner, Revan found a foreign substance in the bodies of the dead as well as imbedded in the plant life. G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate was what his scanner had told him and it simply labeled the substance as a biohazardous material that had been discovered centuries before in the Republic and written off without any further research when it killed the scientists working on it.

Whatever the Pax was, Revan wasn't too enthused to try eating plants laden with what his scanner labeled as a biohazardous material and he stuck with vacuum-sealed food and bottled water. With the amount of dead on Miranda's surface and the rough surface picture Revan's crashing escape pod had painted, there were millions of dead on the world and it had been a tragedy that occurred recently, less than a decade if the rate of decay on the corpses was any indication.

Pushing down his annoyance with the situation he'd damned himself to, Revan absently flipped through a standard Alliance flight training manual. Without anything else to do, Revan decided getting off world was his best solution. Had he known the world was toxic, Revan would have chosen another and it was a point of annoyance to the former Sith Lord that the _Ebon Hawk's_ scanners hadn't picked up the Pax's presence, muted though it was. It was no longer airborne, but millions of exposed decomposing corpses and an entire planet of Pax-infected plant life had little appeal to him, even if he was in a self-flagellating mood when he'd arrived.

The scanners from the Alliance base were useless, their screens showing a simple pattern of multi-colored lines that pulsed without any specific pattern and while Revan considered himself intelligent in comparison with a majority of the galaxy, his genius was focused more on combat, languages, mechanical expertise and military strategy. Random pulsating lines meant nothing to him and he had yet to find a book that explained it enough for him to figure out.

After browsing the flight manual for several hours, Revan kicked his boots up on the console, leaning back in the chair and ignoring the body he'd tossed out of the chair two weeks before. Respect for the dead was one thing, but Revan wasn't about to bury thirty million bodies, let alone take care in handling every one he came across. It was just a waste of energy he needed to concentrate on getting off Miranda. The dead were no help in that.

Weary and disheartened from his inability to connect with the Cortex, Revan fell into a light sleep in the chair. With only the dead for company and the distant flickering of rage, agony and death he sensed from the fleet of destroyed ships in the skies above, Revan had numbed himself to the Force for a time, not wanting to wallow in the death he sensed around him. It wasn't screaming in agony like the dead in the fleet he sensed, but there was a muted sense of pain, of apathy that lingered over the dead like the foul stench of their decomposition.

A frantic beeping woke Revan the next day. Jerking in surprise at the sound, Revan nearly fell out of the chair he'd slept in, fumbling to regain his balance, the former Sith Lord glared at the scanner he couldn't make heads or tails of. Pulling his blaster pistol from its holster on his thigh, Revan shot the device and replaced the weapon before sitting and resting his head on the Cortex console. Groaning in exhaustion and sore from how he'd slept, Revan resisted the urge to take off his mask and rub his face, still paranoid about the Pax even if the scanners said it was no longer airborne.

A flickering drew Revan's eyes to the Cortex console, his eyes widening at the passive face staring at him. A man in a dark blue pinstripe suit stared at Revan, his expression giving nothing away as he regarded the strangely-dressed renegade Jedi. A single brow rose as the man adjusted his suit and Revan saw the man was wearing blue gloves. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, Revan saw another man in similar dress was flanking the man on the screen and he frowned at the monitor before he cleared his throat and tried out his English. He'd been trying to learn the language but he wasn't sure how it would sound to a native of the verse.

"Good to finally see a living face."  
Revan commented, earning only a blank stare as the man in the blue suit studied the armor Revan was wearing.

"You are on a quarantined planet, explain your presence."

The man's voice was as emotionless as a droid's and Revan frowned beneath his mask, straightening his posture unconsciously as he regarded the man seriously through his mask.

"I was on a ship in the area, ran into some trouble and was forced to take an escape pod to this planet. Had I known it was a dead world, I assure you I would have taken my chances in space."  
The man on the screen rose a brow at Revan's accent, clearly not expecting the armored man to have such a refined accent. It was close to British, but not quite and the Blue Hand Agent looked to his partner, a silent conversation passing between the two.

"You are trespassing on an Alliance military facility. It is understandable that you would seek aid from the Alliance, but it is unacceptable to use military assets when civilian equipment is readily available. We will be arriving to collect you shortly, Mister..?"  
Revan rose a brow and decided it wouldn't hurt to use his real name. The men on the screen were serious and operated professionally. Something Revan could respect.

"Qel-Droma. Revan Qel-Droma. I apologize for my actions, sir and I will await your arrival here unless there is a more agreeable rendevous?"  
The Blue Hand Agents exchanged looks before the second one responded.

"Remain where you are. We will arrive in three days."  
Revan politely thanked the officials and sat back as the screen flickered back to the Blue Sun Emblem. Sitting back without a sound, Revan blinked at the console. The men were professional and while not rude, they were not helpful either. Shrugging off his unease, Revan took a look around his little hovel and stood with a sigh.

"I should really get my things together if I am getting off-world."  
Revan muttered to himself as he began sifting through his belongings for anything worth taking alone. Deciding his weapons were a dead giveaway, Revan did his best to hide his lightsabers before breaking down his pistol and rifle. It was unlikely that any trouble would come along in the three days he would have to wait fore the agents to arrive. Three days was nothing compared to the two months he'd been there and Revan knew he could deal with most threats that came his way in the meantime without his rifle or pistol. Grimacing at the scanner console he'd shot, Revan wondered if he'd be in trouble for that before he brushed aside his concerns and began searching for some food. Protein was unappealing, but it kept him alive and that was really all that mattered at that point.

Bastila Shan was beyond angry. If she hadn't known the dangers of falling to the Darkside, hadn't already experienced the effects, she would have thought she was falling. Instead, she calmly stared at the droid before her, a tight frown on her lips as she tried to understand why Revan would so fully isolate himself from his friends and the rest of the civilized galaxy. The Bond she shared with the former Sith Lord was still there, pulsing a steady but weakened gray and giving her insight into Revan's emotions. From time to time a darkness would seep in and red would flicker before it turned a neutral gray again and the Jedi Knight sighed in annoyance. Revan could never make anything simple.

"T3, I need you to stay on the _Hawk_ with that monstrosity of Revan's. Find where he went and- and find out why he left us."  
The droid beeped erratically, its _head_ swiveling as it tried to convey its discomfort. Bastila knelt with some difficulty beside the droid, resting her hand on its curved dome and smiled sadly at the small machine.  
"I'm not asking you to betray him or spy for me. Revan is beyond our reach and he won't be found unless he wants to be. I know this but I cannot accept it. Find the Exile, T3 and bring her back to the Jedi. Revan would not- not leave me unless something important was happening and Canderous hinted at an outside threat. An enemy that has yet to fully reveal itself."  
The droid whistled its compliance before rolling away to join the few Jedi that remained active. They would begin a search for the outcasts and the Jedi hiding within the galaxy's populace. Kataar and what had been a stronghold for the Jedi and the Light had fallen in a single instant. The death of the world and the hundreds of Jedi there had driven Revan into a rage. A rage that he hadn't felt since his time as Darth Revan and Bastila had been truly afraid of the man. That fear had pressed Revan into his decision to leave.

_"I'm no longer safe to be around, Bastila. The- Darth Revan is still inside me, still trying to live and regardless of what the Council said about his- our memories... Revan Qel-Droma is still alive. There is something sinister on the edge of our galaxy, something that he saw as a threat. It was a deciding factor in his- my fall. I need to know."  
_Revan had said as much to her before he left and Bastila had not heard from him since. He'd wandered away six months ago seeking the demons of his nightmares and he hadn't come back. He had simply vanished off the face of the galaxy and only the return of the _Hawk _and the wiped memory banks of the droids and the ship told Bastila what she feared was true.  
Revan had gone to fight the threat alone. Proud, noble Revan had signed his own death warrant to protect the galaxy from whatever he'd seen along the rim. He'd trashed the _Ebon Hawk's_ computer fairly well and covered his tracks so no one could follow the ship from where it had come, but he'd also made it nearly impossible to find where he had gone as well. With only a vague sense of the direction he was in, Bastila could not bring herself to leave the relative safety of Canderous Ordo's camp on Dxun.  
While Dxun's environment was harsh, the Mandalorian warrior was loyal to Revan. Revan had not only proven himself to Canderous and all Mandalorians as a worthy warrior during the Jedi Civil War and the Mandalorian Wars, but he had also unwittingly inherited the loyalty of the Mandalorian Clans from his fallen father Ulic Qel-Droma. Shaking off her silent musings, Bastila nodded to the Mandalorian team that would seek out he missing Jedi and to the only Jedi Master she knew who'd survived the wars and the disaster on Kataar.

"Do you want me to tell him, child?"  
Jedi Master Kreia asked, her sightless eyes staring at the young woman ordering around the Mandalorians. Bastila unconsciously rested a hand over her abdomen and scowled in annoyance.

"I'll tell Revan myself when I find him. If I don't kill him first."  
She wouldn't kill him, but she would surely give him no peace. Kreia nodded absently, bowing and giving a farewell to Bastila before boarding the _Ebon Hawk_ and beginning her search for the Jedi scattered across the galaxy. As she watched the small freighter rise and vanish into Dxun's sky, Bastila glanced at Canderous' steel-gray glare and narrowed her eyes in annoyance.

"I'm not going to kill him you brute. Though I have every right to!"  
Canderous merely quirked a brow in amusement, smirking a very Mandalorian smirk at the spoiled Jedi Princess. He didn't want to deal with her pregnancy but with Revan missing in action and Carth scrambling to save what was left of the Republic's military after the Jedi Civil War's chaotic end, he was really the only option. Plus he had the annoying blue girl and the carpet to help. Revan had only managed to get Zalbaar off his back by making the Wookiee swear to protect Bastila with his life. The lifedebt Zalbaar had sworn on Taris two years before had demanded his compliance and the Wookiee agreed reluctantly to stay behind and protect Revan's wife. Mission had stayed with Zalbaar and while she was hopeful Revan would return, she also understood the dangers of the galaxy. Jolee and Juhani had been killed, violently and swiftly torn away from them on Kataar and it had been the death of their friends that had been the last straw that broke the Bantha's back.

"You'd better be alive, Revan."

Bastila glared in the general direction Revan was, her words filled with anger. He'd picked the absolute worst time to leave, she decided and she would hunt him for it once their child was born.

_"He didn't know..."  
_Bastila reasoned with herself, trying to keep from giving in completely to the anger and pain and the sense of betrayal Revan's abrupt departure had left within her. She hadn't known she was pregnant until a month and a half after his departure and by that time he had been too far away to contact through their Force-bond. A wave of pain echoed through the Force, though it was muted and small, Bastila felt it and the Jedi Knight gasped in shock, her gray eyes widening as she banished all negative thoughts she'd had of Revan. He was in pain, agonizing pain if it could reach her from half a galaxy away and the Jedi shivered in fear, her eyes turning to Canderous as the Mandalorian frowned at the pale pallor of Bastila's young face.

"Something wrong, princess?"  
Canderous asked as gently as he could, barely managing a rough growl. Bastila nodded shakily, her hands curling protectively over her abdomen as she looked to the sky.  
"Revan is in pain... Agonizing pain..."

Canderous grunted, trying to appear indifferent while his hands clenched into fists. Clenching his teeth, the Mandalorian warrior followed the Jedi's gaze and let his lip curl into an angry sneer. Whoever messed with Revan Qel-Droma was asking for the full might of the Mandalorian Clans to fall on them. While scattered and practically decimated by the Mandalorian Wars, there were still enough Mandalorians to make a dent in anyone's army and Canderous vowed silently to do just that as he donned Mandalore's mask and moved through the encampment to speak with his Generals. They had work to do if they were going to be any help at all in whatever war was coming.

Revan had met the Blue Sun Agents in only a set of black robes minus the cloak, hiding his armor and weapons away in the abandoned base and opting to wear a looted pistol he'd found on Miranda and restored to working order. Without so much as a nod of greeting, Revan felt the Force warn him before he drew his weapon and he jerked in surprise when his reaction time dropped significantly. It was still fast enough to plant a bullet in the first Blue Hand Agent's chest before he was brought to his knees by a loud humming that he recognized as a sonic pulse of some kind. Blood began leaking from Revan's eyes and nose and he tried to steady himself against the effects with the Force, finding his hold on the Force fleeting as his brain tried to work around the damage the sonic weapon the still-standing Blue Hand Agent was holding.

"Revan Qel-Droma you are bound by law to cooperate. You are trespassing on Alliance military property and have established an illegal connection to the Cortex. You have also broken the mandatory Quarantine of this sector and are hereby sentenced to death by Parliament Special Order 327of the Anglo-Sino Alliance charter."  
The Agent Revan had shot stood casually, the bullet visible as it glinted in Miranda's sun. Revan absently noted that the men were wearing body-armor before he called on the Force to hurl a nearby chunk of concrete into the speaking Agent's head. The Agent crumpled to the ground, dead and Revan turned his attention to the other, trying to fight off the disorienting and painful effects of the Agent's sonic weapon.  
The remaining Agent jerked in surprise, though his expression was still closed and Revan allowed himself a grim smile of satisfaction as the unease he could read in the Agent's pale blue eyes. That was until two more Agents that looked almost identical stepped from the small transport on the landing field. A sonic pistol was leveled at Revan and fired, sending the former Sith Lord on his back where he felt his control of the Force and his hold on consciousness slipping, a result of the damage being done to his body by the Blue Hand Agent's weapon of choice.

"An anomaly. He has demonstrated telekinetic abilities."  
The Agent that had shot Revan stated emotionlessly. The Agent's partner studied Revan's form as the renegade Jedi tried to level his pistol and he quickly pulled his own pistol and shot Revan with a shot meant to stun.

"The situation has changed. He will be taken back to the Academy immediately for study."  
The Agents agreed aloud with one another before collecting Revan's unconscious body and taking measures to sedate the man. In no position to struggle, Revan was dragged into the transport and restrained before Miranda was left behind him. The Core wouldn't treat the former Sith Lord much better.


	3. Chapter 2: The Academy

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 2: The Academy

_"Kill them."  
_Revan Qel-Droma started awake at the voice in his mind, his brown eyes glazed momentarily as he fought off the exhaustion and pain. Focusing on the here and now, Revan pushed back against the voice that had sounded like his own, but not. It was colder, mechanical and calculating. It held no emotion but a faint stirring of anger and hatred. It was the part of him that had frightened him away from the galaxy he knew, the part that needed to see the darkness they'd felt on Malachor V, needed to walk alongside it and see just what horrors could produce such potent evils.

_"Do you need a bloody invitation you weakling? Kill them!"  
_The part of Revan that had survived Darth Malak's betrayal, that had reemerged from the Jedi's mindwipe was twisting inside his head like a rabid animal, screaming in his mind to do something, _anything_ to make up for how embarrassingly easy he- they had been captured.

_"Are we not feeling the same things? Are we not hearing the same bloody things? You kill them, you Jedi bastard or you let me do it!"  
_Fully in control of his own body, though not in control of the second set of memories and the second personality in his mind, the Jedi Revan; the Prodigal Knight fought off the remnants of the Sith Lord, his eyes focusing on the pale blue walls surrounding him and the half-dozen scientists and doctors working around him. Blinking, Revan ignored the weight of the restraints holding him as he reluctantly followed Darth Revan's advice in his mind and reached out calmly with his senses.

Panic. Pain. Confusion. It was so concentrated, so overwhelming that it nearly drowned out the Jedi's self-control. He couldn't release his hold, couldn't let Darth Revan return. Darth Revan was a monster, as much a monster as those around him and it wouldn't be worth it to unleash such a bastard on the galaxy again. At least, that was what he was thinking until they shoved a needle through his skull, one of hundreds and the first he actually felt.

"The subject demonstrated telekinetic abilities when he was recruited. A thorough scan of his brain shows there has been severe trauma, likely from the surgery he received when his mental conditioning was implanted. Strangely enough there seems to be two distinct thought patterns, as if the- well, the mental conditioning this man underwent was nearly total in scope. Whatever skills he's learned are buried beneath the conditioning and we'll of course need to remove the physical blocks to gain a better understanding of his abilities."  
One of the scientists was speaking to a uniformed official, a young man with blue eyes and dark hair that looked on neutrally, though Revan could sense the revulsion and anger within the young man.

"I asked you to take me to the Academy's best subject. I was led to believe it was the girl, Subject Tam I believe."  
Simon tried to keep the anxiety from his voice, tried to keep the disgust at what he was seeing in front of him from his face. The thought that his sister, his sweet and innocent sister was subjected to something as barbaric as what he was looking at was beyond him.

"Oh and you shall, sir. This man's mind was used partially as a template once we found him several years ago. We were forced to keep him sedated as he'd killed a field operative. While this subject is invaluable, he is not as important as the Tam creature. This... creature came to us, untouched and he shows so much promise that I just had to show you, sir. Key members of Parliament have personally observed the Tam subject's procedures and the results. The Tam subject is our first attempt to emulate what was done to this man. There were so many possibilities opened to us by this creature's arrival that- well, the results are astounding."  
Doctor Mathias tried to collect himself, obviously proud of his work for the Alliance.

"We believe an accident of some kind occurred that made this subject as he is. Our scans show he is human, but there were some... fascinating results... namely the genetic markers that all people within the verse share. He lacks several of them."  
Latching on the his curiosity to push aside his anger and unease at what he was seeing all around him, Simon took the distraction gladly.

"Are you saying that he is a clone?"  
Mathias shook his head, eyeing the Alliance Inspector curiously for a moment before pushing his suspicion aside. It was an intelligent assumption, but entirely wrong.

"The genetic degradation evident in all clones was not present in his scans. He is simply not from any known planet in the verse. He very well could be a survivor from Earth-that-was, though how he came to be in the verse is anyone's guess. He shares some genetic markers from Earth-that-was, but they're buried beneath what could only be millennia of... Well, absurd as it is to say, his world of origin is neither Earth nor any known planet is the Alliance database. He could be from a long-lost colony ship, a straggler from the trek from Earth-that-was, or he could be a completely separate evolution of the human species that is based on another world entirely. We can't know for sure without asking him and the subject was put into a chemical-induced coma for... well, _our_ protection."

A rough voice, deep and chilling in its tone ripped through the sound of the room. All of the doctors and scientists fell still as Revan spoke, his voice rough from disuse. Being strapped to a chair for the better part of two years had left his muscles weaker that they would have been, but somehow the Force sustained them to a fairly impressive state and held complete atrophy at bay. It was part of the mystery that kept the Academy scientists and doctors so interested in him.

"You need to stop this, before you let _him_ loose."  
As a Jedi Knight, it was the Prodigal Knight Revan's duty to inform those around him of the danger they were in. If they cut away the right pieces, Darth Revan could regain control. If the Sith Lord returned, well; the identity the Jedi had placed in Revan's mind would decay and die. He'd already felt his own body fighting him off, the muscles and veins and bones remembering their initial owner and he was truly frightened of what would happen if Darth Revan were let loose again, after so many years being buried and supposedly dead. He was frightened of what would happen to Bastila and the Republic as well, though he'd done his best to separate them from the Republic and any faster-than-light travel. Darth Revan had been a mechanical genius and it wasn't beyond the technology he'd seen on Miranda to make a functional hyperdrive engine.

Simon Tam froze at the tone of the man's voice. It was obviously strained, though the chill that climbed his spine at the man's words refused to go away. Mathias made a gesture for one of the other scientists to inject the man and quickly led Simon away before anything could come of the short meeting.

"I apologize for that. His body is developing an immunity to the drugs necessary to keep him unconscious. If you'll follow me, I'd be more than happy to show you the Tam subject."  
Simon nodded absently, his eyes at the closed door where the strange man still remained. He wished he could free him, as he could all the others but he was only here for River. He couldn't leave her in this Hell any longer and it was a true trial to keep from strangling Doctor Mathias as he prattled on proudly of the atrocities they'd forced upon his _mei mei_.

_"Doesn't look like they listened to you."  
_Darth Revan muttered to the implanted personality, a note of remorse in his tone. He knew the other Revan's fears and shared a few of them. Still, regaining control of his own body was a good thing and he wouldn't mourn the loss of the intruder the Jedi had _**forced**_ within his mind and body.

_"Do me a favor, Sith Lord..."_

Darth Revan considered the request before agreeing mentally. It wasn't the implanted personality's fault the Jedi had made him.

_"If she ever comes for you, don't hurt her. I would say don't break her heart but it was me she fell in love with, not you."  
_Revan Qel-Droma sighed as he lost consciousness once more. He'd sensed the original owner of his body was in agreement with him. Darth Revan had admired Bastila Shan's courage when she'd faced him down on his flagship years before and he wasn't above being grateful to the Jedi for saving his life. If nothing else, Bastila had given him a second chance, or had tried to. She had nothing to do with the Jedi Council trying to bury him within a prison of another's mind and he wouldn't take it into consideration when he faced her... if he faced her.

_"You shouldn't let him die."  
_The voice startled both Revans and the man's eyes opened blearily, looking around in confusion as they tried to pinpoint the source of the voice. It was a young girl's, tremulous and frightened but also holding enough resolve that Darth Revan could respect it and Revan Qel-Droma could acknowledge its importance.

_"Two halves make the whole. One cannot survive without the other."_

Both of Revan's personalities took a moment to regard one another, neither willing to coexist completely with the other, but both knowing the truth of the girl's words.

"Whats your name?"

Darth Revan asked, his voice echoing in the sterile operating room and startling the doctors around him as they tried to ignore his blank brown eyes. A girlish giggle answered the deposed Sith Lord's question and a subtle frown pulled on his lips before the girl responded.

_"River Tam. Pleased to meet your acquaintance, Lord Revan."_

Having no control over his mental shields at that moment, Darth Revan flinched mentally.

_"If I am not completely insane hearing a little girl's voice in my head it can only mean you're telepathic. Stay out of my memories."_

There was nothing sinister about Revan's response to River's presence in his mind, only concern for what anyone looking into his thoughts would see. Darth Revan had fought in two galaxy-spanning wars and was single-handedly responsible for the deaths of over one trillion sentient beings not to mention he'd incinerated dozens of worlds as a Sith Lord in preparation for a war that was never coming.

_"Not scared of the darkness."  
_The voice pouted, petulance that only an child could conjure in its tone and Darth Revan relaxed slightly.

_"If they're treating you as well as they are me, you don't deserve what was done to you, let alone what you'll see in my memories."  
_The Jedi part of Revan's mind was surprised by his Sith counterpart's sincerity and concern. Regarding one another, they decided in that moment to work together.

_"We'll come for you when we can, Miss Tam."  
_Formality and civility was a good shield and Revan decided to use it. A soundless scream, echoing of familiar pain shot through Revan's mind and the girl's voice returned, shaky and pained, though how it was conveyed that way mentally escaped all parties involved.

_"Needles in my brain... needles in my eyes! No no no, make it stop. Simon? Simon! He came!"_

Both Revan's agreed on one thing. If the girl's frantic and pained voice in his mind was any indication she needed to escape.

_"Get out of here, run as far and as fast as you can."  
_The thoughts of the girl were frantic and chaotic for some time after that before she finally responded.

_"I can help you if you want..."  
_Revan was tempted, but it was important that whoever was helping the girl get her away from the Academy. He could sense that well enough and knew better than to tempt fate. As he was at that moment, he would only be a burden.

_"I'll be fine, just go."  
_River hesitated before following Simon as they made their escape. The mind she'd buried herself in for months was filled with so many strange places and people that she couldn't resist. She felt embarrassed and fearful at some of what she saw, but it had helped her, kept her stabilized at times and it was a comfort to know someone was there with her, someone strong enough to tear the Alliance apart if they could get free.

"I saw the stars dance, Simon! Saw the Lord of darkness dance with the Knight of light!"

Simon regarded his sister with tears in his eyes. Gently he reached out and touched her cheek as they were taken away from the Academy in the ship his contacts had arranged to pick him up.

"Its alright, _mei mei. _You're safe now."  
River regarded her brother with an annoyed scowl.

"They danced, Simon! Two became one, even if they don't know it yet! He'll help us, when the time comes."  
Simon Tam hugged his sister tightly, whispering into her ear as he held her, swearing to never let her go again.

"I know, _mei mei._ Its over now, I won't let them get you again. Never again."  
Resolved with what he had done, Simon stood and regarded his sister sadly. She'd changed so much in only two short years. He could see the insanity in her eyes, see the scars from the needles those _hundans_ at the Academy had stuck her with and he shivered as adrenaline and anger coursed through him. If he had the power, he would have ripped that place down, but that was a useless thought. No one in the verse had that kind of power.

A small secretive smile crossed River's lips as she looked up into Simon's pained face.

"He can do it, Simon. He will."

Raising a hand shakily to his hair, Simon brushed his sweat-streaked hair back and absently tugged on his ear, unable to look away from the strange light dancing in his little sister's eyes.  
"The Lord of Revenge and the Prodigal Knight, they'll fight as one, Simon. They'll fight the Blue Sun."  
Simon closed his eyes, a tear rolling down his cheek as he touched River's head gently, mussing her hair affectionately to humor her. It killed a part of him to see his brilliant and beautiful sister so degraded, so broken and he did the only thing he could to comfort them both.

"I'm sure he will, _mei mei._ I'm sure he will."

The Academy falling in on itself was a nice thought and the fugitive doctor allowed himself to be comforted by the delusion as he thought over how to get his sister and himself from the Core. Osiris was out of the question, his father had made that clear enough and unless he had actual evidence of the damage that had been done to River, his parents would shrug it off as a childish prank. It was no game though, and Simon's hands clenched angrily as he moved from his sister's side to a cortex screen in the back of the small shuttle, browsing the database for possible places they could run.

"The wife of Hades brings peace."

River muttered. Simon glanced at his sister with apprehension, pulling his hands from the cortex console to kneel beside his damaged sister. He could look for a waypoint later, right now his sister needed him. River struggled in agitation as Simon wrapped his arms around her protectively, looking at him with open frustration.

"The goddess of fertility brings Serenity!"  
Simon muttered something unintelligible and hopefully soothing to his sister, wishing he'd brought his medical bag. He'd need to get a hold of it before they left Londinium and hopefully he'd find something to stabilize his sister's mind.

AN: That was... fun to write. Guh, writing new characters that I normally don't is frustrating.

_mei mei - little sister_

_hundans - bastards_

_Persephone - Greek goddess of fertility and the wife of Hades_


	4. Chapter 3: Inevitable

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 3: Inevitable

The _Ebon Hawk_ hovered over a dead world, its hull glowing briefly as it entered the atmosphere before it settled over a vast, sprawling city. Bodies, millions of bodies lay about the city, rotting away as they had for a decade. The ship who's crews had been so instrumental to the survival of the Republic and the Jedi Order hovered over the spectacle, its beaten hull telling the tale of its treacherous journey. Landing in a clearing near an old military base, the _Ebon Hawk_ set down gently, its ramp lowering once the readings of the atmosphere showed little harm in breathing the air.

The first person off of the _Hawk_ was a beautiful young woman, her brown hair pulled back into two braids while the top was twisted into a tight and elegant bun. Her stone-gray eyes scanned the bodies laying about and settled on a weapon that lay on the ground. Moving to the abandoned weapon; the woman knelt, running her gloved hands gently over the weapon as her lips turned down into a frown.

"Revan used this weapon..."  
The woman stated, her voice coming through in an accent similar to those from England on Earth-that-was. The rest of the crew of the _Ebon Hawk_ came down at a more sedate pace, the faces of each of the seekers showing their unease at the dead world they were surrounded by.

"Maybe we should hold off until the rest of the fleet gets here..."  
Taya Kenobi, formerly Exiled Jedi Knight and former General of the Revanchists and the Republic Fleet stated cautiously, her blue-green eyes wary as they moved from body to body, building to building.

"Statement: HK-47 detects the Master's transponder nearby."  
The rust-colored assassination droid moved ahead without orders, without asking and into a nearby building that looked to be a flight control center. Bastila Shan looked to the Jedi Exile's companions with a frown before following Revan's creation. HK-47 carried a tracking system that allowed him to return to Revan, or more accurately a small tracker in the deposed Dark Lord's mask. Upon recall, HK-47 would shut down and await further orders for his assassination protocol, but the order had been faked, implanted by the young blue-skinned woman that stood flanking the Jedi Exile.  
"Guess he's got something."  
Mission Vao muttered in annoyance. HK-47 always bothered her and regardless of the droid's obvious uses, she couldn't understand its eager bloodlust. Luckily it seemed to be focused on finding Revan and viewed all of the _Ebon Hawk's _crew as non-threats to its mission or Master.

Grunting in agreement to the Twi'lek's statement, Canderous Ordo; known to the rest of the galaxy as Mandalore, followed the droid, pausing at Bastila Shan's side as he passed her.

"Should follow the damned thing. See if Rev is around here still."  
Bastila nodded shakily, uneasy at the death she could feel lingering around her. Behind her, the Exile's companions argued amongst themselves on what they expected to find when they encountered Revan, but Bastila pushed their voices from her mind. She had HK, Canderous and Mission with her and while the Exile's crew was formidable, she doubted they would be much of a threat to Revan if it came to a fight. The Exile had killed Revan's Jedi Master Kreia on Malachor V only months before and she doubted Revan would take such an offense lightly. The only reason for the Exile's presence on the mission to find Revan and the threat he had chased on the edge of the galaxy was Kreia's final vision of destruction.

Like Revan, the Exile needed to know what the threat was they faced. If Miranda's condition was any indication, there was likely good cause for Revan's disappearance and none commented on the nature of Revan's reasoning. They all hoped he was still the Jedi, but they also feared he was the Sith Lord once more.

Bastila, having the advantage of the bond she shared with her absent husband knew enough to know he was a bit of both at that moment. She also knew he wasn't nearby but his mask was and Bastila resolved to collect each piece of the man that she could until she finally found him.

"Mira would you mind contacting Admiral Onasi and letting him know the fleet is clear to join us."  
The red-haired Mandalorian-raised bounty hunter nodded calmly, moving back to the _Ebon Hawk_ to make use of the communications relay in the common room while Atton Rand and Mical stood stiffly at the Exile's flanks. Neither man wanted to leave the Exile's side and both shared concern for the woman that had given them both a purpose beyond their old lives.

Visas Marr shivered as she reached out with her senses, her thoughts focusing on the dead around her, people who had died as abruptly as those from her own homeworld, but in a different manner. Her initial fears of another creature like Darth Nihilus were cast aside to be replaced y another fear. Something primal and evil was stirring nearby and the reformed Miralukan Jedi could sense a bone-deep rage and agony and madness that hovered at the edge of her senses.  
"The destroyed fleet we saw on our way to this world... Something lingers there... something evil. It- it does not feel quite like Malachor V... I- I do not believe a battle took place there... At least not a battle as we would call it. There is pain and anger and fear and agony and terror there, but I do not-"  
Visas' empty sockets widened briefly as she staggered, Mission's blue hands steadying her as she knelt to the ground.

"It- it is like nothing I have ever sensed before. Such... such senseless violence, such pure _evil._"

Alarmed, the Miralukan stood abruptly, frantically searching for the calming presence of her new master. The Exile placed a gentle hand on Visas, frowning in concern at her companion though the Miralukan could not see the gesture. Feeling the concern from her master, Visas faced the Jedi Exile, her face twisted in pained realization.

"There- there is something in the debris. Something dark and hungry, hunting and ever-watchful. It- it is evil, master. I have no other word for it."  
Taya Kenobi nodded to her friend, turning and shouting to Canderous' distant form to come back. The Mandalorian leader ignored the Exile's call, dragging a bag filled with Revan's abandoned armor and weapons with him while HK-47 trailed behind, looking forlorn for a droid.

"Revan isn't here. His weapons and armor were, but he's gone. I'm pretty sure he would have tried to get off this world if he could, but he would have brought this with him if that departure was his idea and not someone else's."  
Bastila looked at the Mandalorian's silver helm, feeling the unease within the older human without having to see his expression.

"All of you, get to the ship. We'll wait for the fleet and defend ourselves if necessary. Remember, we are the scouting party, not the main battle group."  
The others gave signs of agreement to Bastila, knowing she was the superior for their mission. Their mission was a simple scouting run to assess the threat on the edge of Republic space and find the Prodigal Knight if possible. Finding Revan's belongings was a start and they'd assessed a threat to them within a nearby fleet of what appeared to be destroyed ships.

"We'll find him, Princess."  
Canderous assured the ranking member of the Jedi Order present. Bastila nodded numbly, crossing her arms and worrying briefly of her daughter. She'd left her daughter in Zalbaar's care on Kashyyyk, knowing that the Wookiee would fulfill his lifedebt to Revan to the best of his ability and extend that debt to Revan's offspring. Pushing back her fears and concerns, Bastila assured herself that Zalbaar was far enough away from the threat to protect her child while she sought the father. If Revan wasn't too harmed she was going to slap him before kissing him. He should know better than to fight a war by himself.

"Search the planet for any distress signals. Make sure to check all frequencies and all carrier waves. We don't know what kind of communications the people who lived here used."

Bastila ordered as she took one last look across the abandoned world. Reaching along the bond, the only reason they knew the general area of space Revan was in, Bastila tried to reach her absent husband, pressing along the weakened link between their minds and souls, trying to find her husband. Echoes of pain and anger and concern reached the Jedi and she shivered. Revan was obviously being held prisoner, but she wondered how seriously he would be damaged and honestly how much of the man she had fallen in love with would remain. Turning, Bastila returned to the _Hawk_, the Force echoing of a warning that was too late for anyone on the world to hear. Even a Jedi Knight.

_Serenity_ moved silently through space away from Haven. Her hull was covered in the twisted trappings of a Reaver ship, all red paint and jagged metal accompanied by the corpses of dead friends. The crew moved quietly through the ship, making the preparations for their run through Reaver space in silence. Anger was a chief emotion amongst the crew as well as regret. They'd lost a lot of good friends on Haven and elsewhere because of the Operative's efforts to find River Tam. Come whatever else, the crew was prepared to die in the most horrible way imaginable to put their friends to rest, to honor their deaths by revealing whatever the secret was that they'd unwittingly died for. It wasn't about what was smart, but what was right and none of the crew, not even Jayne were going to turn back.

"Gorrammit!"  
Jayne cursed, fumbling over his weapons in a mixture of anxiety, anger and annoyance. Shepard's death had hit hard and he found himself questioning his life and where it had taken him. Regrets that had nothing to do with the fleet of Reavers they were flying into were foremost in his mind and the mercenary grunted as he took a machine gun from his collection, cradling the weapon with care as he climbed out of his bunk. Glancing to the flight deck, Jayne moved to join Mal and Wash, neither acknowledging his presence as he stood at the entryway nervously.  
"Kaylees got the engines ready to go. Everything that ain't important is stowed and I got my girls ready."  
Jayne hefted the machine gun in his hands for emphasis as Mal glanced over his shoulder at the merc. Eyeing the man curiously, Mal shrugged off his questions and nodded to the hired gun, turning his attention back to Wash as the pilot did all he could to look for the rest of the verse like a Reaver ship returning from a raid.

"The Lord of Revenge is waking."  
Jayne tried to muster up a glare at the crazy girl, but after seeing Shepard's body, he couldn't quite manage it. River's eyes were lucid, but that hardly meant anything and the merc glared over the reader's shoulder to her brother.

"Keep her quiet."  
Jayne growled, earning a glare in return from the Doctor. Ignoring the glare, Jayne settled against the edge of the cockpit, waiting for it all to play out, hopefully without becoming a Reaver snack. River tilted her head, a feeling of something familiar on the edge of her mind that made her relax slightly. Miranda would giver her nightmares and captured memories reality and she shivered, crossing her arms over her chest.  
"The voice of the Paladin's Council seeks her mate. She brings righteous war..."

A smile crossed River's lips briefly, before the voices of the Reavers drowned out the light she could sense from Bastila Shan. Simon touched his sister's arm in concern, unable to pull River out of her horrified fit as she looked at the encroaching Reaver ships around them.

In the heart of the Alliance, buried in the bowels of one of its darkest secrets, Revan Qel-Droma opened his eyes slowly. The sensors around him beeped warnings to the scientists working on him and a drug entered his system, cutting off his thoughts before they could form into a weapon. For the briefest of moments, Revan sneered in disgust at himself. While he'd been gaining a steady immunity to the sedatives being used against his system he couldn't push enough of the poison in his veins out. A humorless chuckle escaped the captured Jedi as he struggled for several minutes against his bonds and the forced-delirium. He couldn't escape from the Academy by himself, he realized that after his first lucid period; but then... Who ever said that Revan would be the hero of the story?


	5. Chapter 4: Miranda

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 4: Miranda

Moving through the ruins of Miranda, _Serenity's_ crew didn't quite know what to expect when they came upon the distress beacon left by an Alliance survey team that had been sent to the world over a decade before. They hardly expected to see a strange gathering of other people, let alone a ship comparable to _Serenity_ in size though crafted on a completely different set of universal principles in mind. Shielding and hyperspace travel for one.

"Who the ruttin Hell are you?"  
Malcolm Reynolds asked, his weapon aimed on the strangely dressed people. The Captain's eyes nearly fell out of his head when he spotted a blue-skinned... thing. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the woman, other than she was blue and had... tentacle-looking thingies in lieu of hair. The hostile approach was a mistake though, as Mal found his weapons suddenly on the ground in front of a fairly striking young woman who glared at him and spoke in a language he couldn't place if he wanted to.  
Annoyed at the hostile nature of their meeting with _Serenity's _crew, Bastila Shan cut all pretenses and used the Force to rip the weapons being pointed at Mission and the others from the other group's hands, letting them drop in front of her to show who was going to ask the questions. Pulling her saberstaff from her belt, the Jedi ignited the blade, causing several amongst the other group to jump in surprise while the others merely gaped at her and her companions.

"I'll ask again, who the Bloody Hell do you think you are to come pointing weapons at us? We are answering a distress call, not walking into a pirate's trap. I can assure you I alone am more than a match for you, sir."  
Bastila glared coldly at Mal, causing the browncoat to shift uneasily under her glare and cast a nervous glance at his disarmed crew. Jayne looked ready to run, though his hand strayed to the knife still on his waist while Zoe stood between her husband and the Captain, her loyalty to each man causing her to want to protect both. Simon was standing back with Kaylee, both holding one another nervously as they watched the events play out in disbelief and fear. Inara did her best to hide her shock, but even her eyes were wider than was likely normal for the Companion.  
River was the only one who didn't seem concerned. The Reader actually beamed at the angry woman with the strange glowing... yellow sword thingy. Mal wasn't going to dwell too long on the impossibility of the weapon, just its function. It looked like it would burn and hurt and he was all for not being hurt or burnt. When River started speaking in something that sounded similar to the woman's language, Mal didn't know if it was a blessing or a curse. River, bless her soul, could say something very profound and moving or something insane and... potentially deadly. For them.

"They speaking crazy to each other, Mal?"  
Jayne asked, subtle as ever. A red... thing that looked to be as rusted as some parts of _Serenity_ stepped forward, hefting an intimidating-looking rifle as it eyed Jayne curiously through red-orange photoreceptors.

"Irritated Statement: The small female meatbag is speaking on behalf of your meatbag selves in a language the meatbags accompanying this HK-unit on its primary mission."  
The droid scanned for threats from _Serenity's _crew, dismissing River as she could not damage him in the point-three-two seconds it would take for him to incinerate her. Jayne appeared to be the only one of _Serenity's _crew still armed and the droid debated just shooting the large man before a warning glare from Bastila at something River said caused the droid to slump slightly in disappointment.  
"Weary Resignation: The Master's wife-unit has forbidden this unit to act with deadly force to you, though I am still allowed to maim."  
The droid's eyes brightened in sadistic glee as it turned its full attention to Jayne, causing the Merc to shift uneasily and pull his hand slowly from his big damn knife. Satisfied with intimidation, HK-47 practically glowed at the fearful reaction before another annoyed order from Bastila in the same strange language caused the droid to step back, its large blaster rifle held diagonally across its chassis as it stood down and answered the Jedi in the same language. To _Serenity's _crew's surprise, River giggled lightly at the droid before turning her attention back to Bastila.

"We're here looking for answers, just like you are. We want to know what happened to this world and why it was so important to have many of our friends killed to prevent us from coming here."  
Bastila could sense the truth in the girl, young woman's words and she frowned in concern as she looked into River Tam's eyes. The girl's eyes were almost as ancient as Revan's, a deep dark brown that housed an abyss of pain and nightmares that none should know in one lifetime, let alone a handful of short decades.

"How do you know our language? There is only one person from- from where we come from here."

A name was spoken between River and Bastila that caused Simon to jerk in surprise. He was appalled at what he saw on Miranda, terrified of what they'd seen and heard coming through the Reaver fleet and mourning the deaths of all those on Harvest and elsewhere. He'd almost been so distracted that he hadn't heard it, but when River said the name, he recalled the man Doctor Mathias had so proudly displayed to him and he stepped from Kaylee's reassuring and appreciated presence to join his sister.

"I'm sorry, did you just say Qel-Droma?"  
Simon asked, looking between his sister and the woman that had since deactivated her glowing weapon's blade. The woman frowned at him before looking to River for a translation.  
"He was in the Academy with me. They were trying to do to us what was done to him..."  
Bastila could sense something was inherently wrong with the girl before her, she could see that River had been damaged, but in that moment she came to a conclusion that made her blood run cold.

"Mission, bring me a scanner from the _Hawk_, please."  
Sensing the urgency in Bastila's voice, Mission nodded and rushed to the _Ebon Hawk_ while Jayne Cobb watched the blue woman go with a frown before turning to Mal.

"Why in Hell she got those blue things on her head... and why is she blue?"  
River rolled her eyes and turned to Jayne, sticking out her tongue at the mercenary when he glowered at her for a moment at her look. She was looking at him like he was the dumbest person in the verse and while he acknowledged that he wasn't the brightest, he wasn't a complete moron. He just got stupid sometimes when he was scared or when the money was too good.

"She's an alien, man named Jayne."  
Jayne looked confused a moment before he looked at the young Twi'lek woman as she reappeared, studying her curiously before shrugging. Made sense. The rest of _Serenity's_ crew wasn't so accepting of River's explanation and River directed her disbelieving look to them as they vocally questioned what the ape-man gone wrong accepted almost instantly.

"That's impossible, _mei mei_. There is no such thing as aliens. She's just..."  
Simon trailed off when one of Mission's lekku twitched and curled around her neck. Openly gawking at the Twi'lek, the young doctor didn't catch Bastila raising something to his sister until it made a noise. Fearing it was a weapon, Simon moved to stand between his sister and Bastila, much to the Jedi and his sister's annoyance.  
"Move him, or I will."  
Bastila stated to River, annoyed at the ignorance and hostility on display before her. If these were the good guys, she was loathe to meet whoever had her husband if River's testimony was to be believed. When River managed to get Simon to stop fussing over the device in Bastila's hands, she noticed the intrigued and then horrified and disgusted expression on the older woman's face.

"By the Force! What- who did this to you?"  
A fury that Bastila couldn't quite ignore filled her as she looked from the scans of River to the girl. River shouldn't even be functional with all the damage done to her brain, not be anywhere near as lucid and reasonable. The girl should have been a drooling mess, unable to fend for herself let alone form cognitive thought patterns. Catching all of the Jedi Knight's thoughts, River smiled sadly at the woman, not even noticing Simon was standing beside Bastila now, staring at the screen of the scanner with sad understanding. He could see the horror in the woman's features and the way her hands trembled as they held the scanner and he knew they weren't a danger to him or the others. If nothing else, the woman was in charge of the other group of... people and he relaxed as much as he could after what he'd seen and heard since leaving Haven.

"The Academy. It was a government-run school back on Londinium. They were supposed to teach us... but- but they hurt us they- I can show you, but its bad."  
Knowing Bastila possessed psychic capabilities, River knew she could share thoughts with the slightly older woman like she briefly had with Revan back in the Academy and she looked earnestly into the Jedi's angry and sympathetic gray eyes, letting her know she couldn't speak of the Academy, couldn't remember without someone to center her, to make her a stone.

Bastila regarded River's earnest and fearful expression sadly, her fury at what she'd seen in the scans she'd done on the girl and her concern for Revan overshadowing her own minute fear of what horrors she would witness. She'd seen some dark things in the wars and in Revan's mind and she carefully placed mental shields around those thoughts to shield River from their added burden before she nodded to the girl. River moved forward gracefully, resting her right hand on Bastila's temple as she closed her eyes. Bastila did the same, her weapon joining the handheld scanner on her belt while she joined with River's mind briefly to see what the girl couldn't put into words.

Mal shifted, wanting to exercise his captainy authority and not liking what was going on as he couldn't understand it while Simon fretted about River, wondering what was going on between his sister and the other woman. Inara approached, eyeing the other group of people warily before she turned her attention to the crashed ship they were going to investigate. Her training told her enough to know that the other group wouldn't harm them without cause and she decided their original purpose for being in the area was important.

"They won't harm us, Mal. We should see to that distress call when they're finished."  
Mal eyed Inara shrewdly, a scathing retort dying on his lips when he saw the earnest look in the Companion's brown eyes. Swallowing back his insult, Mal nodded numbly, casting a sideways glance to his second as Zoe moved closer to her husband's side.

"We came here for a reason and entertaining though this little shindig has been, we got a distress signal to see to. Little River needs to see it and I don't think there's no harm in these fine... folk... to see it too."  
Mal glanced back at the sound of someone vomiting and he tensed when the woman who was apparently the leader of the other group keeled over, dropping to her knees and shivering in a what he could only guess was abhorrence. Another woman who looked slightly older approached the kneeling brown-clad woman and Mal glanced down at their forgotten weapons, hoping the woman hadn't emptied her bowels on their guns.

"Oh Force. I am so, so very sorry... Anything, **anything** the Jedi Order or the Republic can do to help you-"  
Bastila looked up into River's eyes, her expression a mixture of sympathy, horror and anger, though horror seemed to be prevalent. The Jedi of the _Hawk's _group had felt an echo of River's thoughts when they struck Bastila and while the pain and agony and embarrassment and everything else that River had shown Bastila had been muted, it had still managed to cause them to go white with disgust and shiver at the sense of wrongness that accompanied it.  
"Rev- Revan is in that place. We- We need to-"  
River gently touched Bastila's face, smiling when the Jedi Knight looked up to meet her eyes again.

"Don't worry. He was too strong for them. He just needed a little push. The Prodigal Knight and the Lord of Revenge were fighting each other for control, killing each other off piece by piece like the Academy took my brain from me, but they didn't need the brain like the girl did. They only needed the will. They are one, black and white merged to gray and he is safe from them."  
Knowing the Force was capable of many seemingly impossible and unnatural things, Bastila found some comfort in the girl's words as she felt the bond she shared with Revan strengthen slightly. Pushing along the Force and the bond, Bastila offered all of her love and respect for Revan, all of her fears and her anger and everything that she was to him, she pushed all she could into the bond until he pushed back weakly.  
_"I'm coming for you, Revan."  
_Bastila sent the message along the bond as best she could, feeling the worry from Revan at the thought of her being in the dark place he was.

_"They most certainly won't catch me off guard, love. I'm not going to leave our daughter motherless or fatherless. No force in this galaxy is going to stop me from finding you."  
_Revan Qel-Droma pushed himself out of his drug-induced prison briefly when he sensed his wife and he tried to warn her away. If they could capture him, they could get to her. When she sent her assurances and her message of their child, Revan blinked at the intensity of the love his wife held for him before smiling. Darth Revan had shown him how to hide his thoughts away in the Force to be recovered later and no matter how many needles the Alliance stuck into his eyes or what they cut out of his brain, they would never control him.

Controlling the Qel-Droma subject had become an obsession of Doctor Mathias before he'd been executed by the Operative seeking River Tam and while they'd cut away the physical memories of the man's life, they had no knowledge of the Force and they didn't know all their actions did was make Revan angrier. If the thought of an angry Revan was frightening, the thought of his enraged wife was the definition of terror.

Hell hath no fury, after all.

Still... Revan had no wish to escape the Academy. The thoughts of the others being tortured and experimented upon in its walls pierced his skull, filling the former Dark Lord's mind and giving him something more important that anger to focus upon. It gave him the names and more importantly the faces of each person involved with the Academy and with a small, cold smirk on his lips; Revan endured. He had committed hundreds of names and faces to memory. Buried the thoughts deep within himself and build a wall around them to protect the important memories. If he were to escape he couldn't get all of the bastards and with infinite patience, the Prodigal Knight and the Lord of Revenge waited and listened to the thoughts around him, unaffected by the efforts of the Academy's butchers to condition his mind. Though he did make a good show of cooperating.

When he had the names and faces of every last person involved in the Academy. When he knew he had the means to find each and every last one of the bastards that took it upon themselves to violate children's minds for their own ends he would make his move. Bastila was close, but she knew the use of subtlety. The evils of the Academy were so despicable to Revan that he could not allow anyone who had a hand in it to survive. So he waited with infinite patience, knowing the Force could sustain his memories and his body for as long as was necessary.

When it would finally be time to make his move. No one who profited from the Academy's research, no one who funded the organization knowingly and no one who was involved in the horrific programs would survive.


	6. Chapter 5: Projected Results

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 5: Projected Results

The Operative tracking River and Simon Tam was a man the Sith Lord within Revan Qel-Droma could understand. Understand and appreciate. The Operative had no hand in the running, funding or founding of Blue Sun's Academy for so called gifted children, so the Jedi pawn within the former Dark Lord of the Sith's mind protested killing the Operative. Through months of painful testing done at the hands of Doctor Mathias and the Academy's other butchers, Revan had discovered that very few knew of the Academy's true purpose and that it was Blue Sun and a few within the hierarchy of Alliance Parliament that knew of the Academy and actively supported it. He'd get to them eventually, but first he had to escape and the Operative that replaced the two slain Blue Hand Agents that were tracking the Tams gave him an opening.

Chaos followed the Operative's brief stay at the Academy and when he felt the death the Operative gave Mathias and the quick and efficient way he slew the Doctor's guards, Revan felt a kinship for the man. He was as much a pawn as the Jedi's implanted personality was. Blinded by the righteousness of his cause, the Operative went on his mission without question and without deviation fro his purpose. To create a better world.

Darth Revan had done such a thing once. He'd torn down the barriers placed before him by his superiors, exercised horrific battle plans that killed scores of his own men but also brought hope in a hopeless cause. Darth Revan had honed his skills to near-perfection and was one of the deadliest men in the galaxy, if not the deadliest. In order to become the monster needed to reshape the galaxy into a stronger, harsher place, Revan had committed himself fully to the Sith cause and had brought the Jedi Order and the Republic to ruins only to find the threat to his galaxy that had seemed so daunting was so small in scope in comparison to the rest of the galaxy that it could have been ignored.

The Jedi Order had ignored the darkness and evil they had sensed over a decade before forming in the verse, seeing the problem as small. The potency of the evil Revan sensed was what had drawn him in so completely to his plan to reform the galaxy into a Sith Empire. Revan had a unique outlook on pain and destruction and death. He could see the entire of his crimes, could look at the dozens of worlds and hundreds of billions that had died in his name or fighting him without emotion. They had all died for a greater cause and one that had actually made the galaxy stronger and smarter. He saw the mass murders and torturous conversions as a necessity and not a cruelty. Cruelty was focusing all of that pain and death and destruction on one person or without a greater purpose.

The Alliance had done such a thing to River Tam and when he'd briefly touched the young girl's mind, Revan had seen a cruelty he couldn't abide. Even in the face of the Alliance's greater purpose, neither Revan could abide the cruelties placed specifically upon River Tam and he swore to burn the Academy and Blue Sun and the Alliance for it.

The people of the Republic saw the Jedi and the Sith as the same, even with the great differences in their orders and Revan had actually counted on that. If the Jedi could be noble, why couldn't the Sith? If a Sith could be a monster, why not a Jedi? The Order he had turned his back on had been corrupted by fear and ruled by cowards too settled into their own righteousness to see the pain in the galaxy around them. All Sith had once been Jedi and Revan took the measures needed to remind the Order and the Republic of that fact. The Jedi Order had been a beacon of light and justice within the galaxy, but beneath the veneer of righteousness and compassion lay great and terrible mistakes brought upon by unwavering commitment to the light regardless of the cost and the flawed belief that Jedi were incorruptible. Revan had reached into the heart of the Jedi Order and ripped away those lies and he couldn't bring himself to be ashamed of it.

It had needed to be done. Unquestioning belief in anything, be it the Sith's philosophy or the Jedi Order's could bring about more evil than good and Revan had played both sides against one another before coming to the decision to serve neither side of the Force, yet use both. He'd have been termed a gray Jedi, if the Order hadn't fallen. Most of the galaxy knew him as the Prodigal Knight or the bastard who used to be the Sith Emperor but conveniently forgot.

Darth Revan couldn't ignore the pain the Order allowed to exist. He couldn't ignore the deaths of entire worlds at the hands of the Mandalorians and he couldn't abide the Jedi Order's callous indifference to the suffering caused by Mandalore's war. When Malachor V's Trayus Core had brought a vision of the evil the verse held, Revan had nearly gone mad from the rage and agony and wrongness that had filled his thoughts. It had been over a decade since that moment and Revan had found a name for the evil he'd sensed. An evil the Alliance and Blue Sun had created, however inadvertently and one he couldn't abide.  
_"Reavers."_

Only a few knew of the creatures and as he was experimented upon and injected with drugs and Force-knew what else to make him into a tool for Blue Sun, Revan picked the thoughts out of the minds of those working on him, sorting them out neatly before him with little need for the parts the Alliance cut from him. His powers were based within the Force, not his mind and the Force protected him, even as the Academy scientists cut his memories from him. Darth Revan had survived such an attempt before, one that he had been unprepared for and the Jedi that had cut into his brain and placed the _other _Revan within him were much more knowledgeable and competent than the fools around him.

By the time Mathias had been buried and forgotten by Blue Sun and the Operative had pressed the Tams to the edge of the verse, Revan Qel-Droma was tested by the Academy to be the weapon needed to replace River Tam's near endless potential. The former Sith Lord was strong, psychic and a match for every training scenario thrown at him and with what they thought was total control over Revan Qel-Droma's mind, the Academy's director signed off the order needed to unleash the new _weapon_ upon the verse.

The rogue Jedi Knight in question stood in a well lit training room. Clad only in teal trousers, Revan faced a blinking screen before him with a vacant expression. Commercials for Blue Sun food products raced over the screen and Revan felt the behavioral conditioning forced into his mind by needles and simulators and drugs twitch in response. He suppressed its full control, mimicking what the subliminal message instructed him to do without a fault. A sink with toiletries was in a corner of his room and Revan took calm and measured steps to the sink, briefly inspecting his appearance and resisting the urge to flinch.

First he trimmed his unkempt beard, cutting away nearly three years of neglect and followed the instructions seared into his mind to appear presentable. After forming an elegant-looking goatee, Revan took care to trim his hair that had long-since grown past his shoulders to its shoulder-length that it had been when he'd been captured. Ignoring the cameras and eyes watching him, Revan stripped of his trousers and stepped into a small alcove at the side of the room, washing his filthy body of grime and sweat before moving his attention to his hair. A towel was conveniently placed within the alcove and Revan used it to dry his body and then his tangled brown hair before he stilled, dropping the towel and staring vacantly at the screen again.  
The test was passed convincingly and those passing along the subliminal messages had no clue that Revan was merely playing along and that all of their work on the former Sith Lord was meaningless.

A uniformed woman entered the room with a set of clothes that Revan absently noticed were simple, but appeared to be elegant. They reminded Revan of high-class civilian wear from Taris, aside from the light blue color and Revan waited until the message flashed across the screen to don the clothing. Following orders, Revan ignored the presence of the woman as she stared at him critically, watching each of his motions with trained eyes.  
A new message played and Revan followed the tendrils in his mind, disabling the woman as she attempted to skewer him with a hidden blade she pulled from her wrist. The order was to disable and await instructions so Revan did just that, shattering the woman's wrist and taking her knife in his own hand when she lost her grip. The cool blade rested on the woman's throat and a set of orders passed over the screen. Revan followed through with the orders, the blade piercing the woman's jugular and he casually avoided the blood-spray from the neck wound, tossing the body to the floor in a casual and unfeeling manner before stepping back to the center of the room and standing at attention. The screen played an order for Revan to lose the blade and Revan calmly moved back to the woman's side, laying the weapon on her back before he returned to his post at the center of the room again.

The captive Jedi would have rolled his eyes in annoyance at the need for them to pass orders for each of his actions if he hadn't been concerned with breaking his ruse. A humming sound flashed over Revan and the simulation ended, leaving the former Sith Lord seated in a chair with electrodes and wires attached to his unclothed body. The Academy was willing to sacrifice their staff for the end result, but holographic simulators were more efficient as they could follow the subject's brainwave patterns to see if the conditioned responses were truly being obeyed or if the subject was playing along.

A doctor moved over Revan's unmoving body and removed the electrodes, his eyes on his job and not the subject's face while a man in a blue business suit and a high clearance tag watched with interest.

"With the results from the Tam subject's conditioning we were able to fully integrate them into the Qel-Droma subject. His mind is a blank slate. We've spend months removing his old memories and thoughts and training the new reactions into him. There are still aspects of the subject's nature that we don't understand, but he is essentially ready for deployment. We believe that whatever previous trauma his brain suffered helped in the subject's positive results."  
The man clad in the suit moved to stare down into Revan's blank brown eyes with emotionless blue ones. Revan had tricked the sensors attached to him and passed all of the Academy's tests with potential that matched River Tam's. He didn't want to overdo it, but he didn't want to appear worthless or low level. He needed to be in a position of power when he made his move and when the Director for the Academy nodded his approval of the Qel-Droma's deployment, Revan had his key.  
As an Operative of Blue Sun and an assassin he would have full access to their database and be able to move without hindrance through his inevitable escape. The Academy lacked the means to implant him with a tracker that he wouldn't be able to remove and Revan made certain to follow each conditioned response to the letter. Even if it meant killing. Once he was outside of the Academy, he would disappear with the information he needed and he'd have some good old fashioned revenge.

"Implant the infiltration protocol into the subject's mind and have him track and kill the Operative. The Alliance may be partners in this, but we answer to the President of Blue Sun, not the Chancellor. Have him kill the Operative and apprehend the Tam subject. After seeing the results from the last month of testing and seeing for myself the control we have over the subject I am prepared to use this asset we have been gifted. Mathias' death was unfortunate as was River Tam's escape. Perhaps we have found the means to rectify both of those tragedies."  
The doctor that had replaced Mathias, a middle-aged Asian man by the name of Doctor Chen nodded his agreement before he turned back to the Qel-Droma subject.  
"Can you imagine what we could accomplish with the Qel-Droma subject and the Tam subject once we finish her training, Director Fairbanks?"  
The Director of the Academy indulged himself for a moment and allowed a faint curve of his lips as he regarded the Qel-Droma subject through cold blue eyes.

"Our dreams given form, Doctor Chen. The first steps in creating a better world. One we can control absolutely."

Revan was left for several hours within the chair as the cover necessary for his infiltration into the Operative's task force was prepared and his mission parameters were implanted within him. By the end of the day, Revan Qel-Droma walked out of the front of the Academy clad in an Alliance Marine uniform and carrying the orders and paperwork necessary for joining the Operative on Mr Universe's moon.

It was only a matter of a few days travel before Revan was in place and Blue Sun eagerly awaited the results of their newest assassin.

A silent alarm within the Academy went unnoticed for nearly a week before the Academy security discovered someone had hacked their mainframes and downloaded a copy of every name and project file on record. The hack had been done with such skill that Revan had delayed the release of the alarm and a smirk crossed the former Sith Lord's lips as he walked through the corridors of one of the ships deployed in the Operative's task force.

He had what he needed to bring down the Academy and harm Blue Sun beyond repair. All he needed was a means of transmitting the information and ironically it was the Operative that gave him the option. A small strike team was formed to storm Mr Universe's domain and Revan stood clad in Alliance Marine assault armor, fully at attention with his assault rifle as they awaited contact from _Serenity_.

AN: Well, the pieces are all in place now. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.


	7. Chapter 6: Hunters and Killers

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 6: Hunters and Killers

Bastila Shan could feel that Revan was close, but she couldn't understand why he was hiding from her. It had taken some convincing and a few threats to HK-47 to get _Serenity's _crew to let them watch the distress signal left by the Alliance team sent to Miranda over a decade before and the Jedi Knight shivered as she recalled the terrible death she'd witnessed on the copy River had given to her. _Serenity's_ captain refused to give up the recording and Bastila was inclined to let the man keep the original as well as the copy, but it was necessary to discover what had happened on the world that had left such a powerful scar within the Force that it brought Revan there.

What she'd seen of the Reavers had made her blood run cold in her veins and she'd lost her lunch by the time the Reavers on the recording had finished with the woman. She had thought Darth Malak had been the epitome of evil once, before Darth Nihilus and Darth Sion had brought the sad remnants of the Jedi Order to near-extinction. Revan and Malak had a purpose behind their actions while Nihilus had only wanted to become Death incarnate and consume the lives of all Jedi and all worlds. Darth Sion had been so blinded by his own pain that his only comfort was to spread it. Bastila knew little of Darth Traya's fate. The Exile had been closed off over the issue of Revan's old Jedi Master's end and there hadn't been anyone else there to witness Kreia's end.

Bastila hoped Kreia hadn't been so consumed with whatever her cause had been that she had become a monster like Nihilus or Sion. Kreia had been there for her daughter's birth and had offered an odd sort of comfort to the Jedi Knight in the wake of Revan's disappearance. Of all of the Jedi that remained, Kreia had been the one to understand Revan's need to seek whatever threat had formed and Bastila glanced down at the datacrystal in her hand, torn between destroying the horrific murder it contained and the need to understand what Revan had come to the verse to face.

She had no doubt in her mind that Revan had sensed the Reavers. Their presence within the Force was muted and almost animal in nature and Bastila could not fathom the insanity that would drive men, human men to the violent violation and butchery she'd seen. Even Canderous, hardened as he was after a lifetime of warfare and destruction had turned his eyes from the woman's screams. They couldn't understand the English the woman spoke, but the woman's hopeless expression, her attempt to end her own life before the Reavers could reach her and her inevitably slow and agonizing death at the creature's hands was a clear message.

HK-47 had translated the recording without his usual appreciation of violence and bloodlust and Bastila had been too disturbed by the Miranda recording to notice. The droid was an assassin and enjoyed inflicting damage on meatbags, but there was no understandable goal within the recording of the torture the woman had endured before her death and HK-47 found it disgusting, surprisingly enough. Killing worthless meatbags was one thing, mindlessly torturing them and then mutilating them and sewing their flesh onto your covering was just something the assassin droid could not compute.

"Curious Inquiry: What is the point of these rabid meatbags?"  
The droid questioned Canderous after Bastila and the others had retreated to more private areas to shake off the horrors they'd seen on the recording. Canderous glanced at the droid with a frown beneath his mask before shaking his head and leaving without a word. HK-47 could say some sadistically funny things, but Canderous wasn't going to sit around and explain why the recording wasn't entertaining to Revan's demonic creation. HK-47 appreciated violence, not evil and what Canderous had seen in the recording had been evil in its purest form.

"They were supposed to stop, but they didn't. The pax was supposed to reprogram them, but it only made them monsters. They won't stop, they won't lay down like the others and they'll come with blades and teeth and pain and hunger and all they want is to rip and tear and rape and murder..."  
HK-47's computer core registered an appropriate tactical response of incineration for stealthily approaching an assassin droid unnoticed, but the Hunter Killer droid resisted the reaction as the small meatbag had answered his inquiry. Instead he turned his red-orange eyes to River Tam as the young woman stared at him with wide brown eyes.

"Disgusted Observation: There is no purpose to their actions. No logical sense in the Pax-infected meatbag's design. An adverse reaction to the Pax should result in the observed decaying meatbag status. The reaction of these Reaver-meatbags does not compute."  
River stared at the droid, fascinated by the mechanical life before her and confused as to why it registered in her mind as having thought patterns. It didn't look like a cyborg and she wondered if the droid was an actual living machine. It had an almost child-like attitude and she found it if not a little disturbing to be impossible without the use of biological parts harvested from humans... or aliens. The young genius was still trying to work out the workings of Mission Vao's alien mind and found that it wouldn't quantify.

"The experiment was done through a terraforming air processor. It is likely that an unknown element effected the Pax that would cause adverse reactions not noted in previous research on G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate. Not all of the worlds terraformed were devoid of life and a mutation is not entirely impossible."  
HK found that River's observation was feasible and conceded the possibility.

"Concession: Your meatbag logic is sound. Declaration: This HK-47 unit will terminate all Pax-infected meatbags it encounters. Conclusion: Master would approve."

River couldn't quite summon the will to giggle at the droid, but she smiled slightly at the creation, sorting through her memories of Revan and finding a sense of fondness for the mechanical monstrosity. It was like a child to Revan, one he had created with his hands and one he maintained as well as Jayne maintained Vera. River could appreciate the droid's outlook and she frowned when a stray thought struck her brainpan, pressing down on her thoughts with all the grace of a sledgehammer.  
"Simon is streaky."  
River sighed longsufferingly, shuddering at the invasion of her brother's thoughts. She couldn't filter them and while she was feeling better after coming to Miranda and finding the recording and knowing that the memories of the Parliament men were not hers, she found her tentative grasp on her sanity and control slipping in the wake of strange and seemingly impossible things.

"Analysis: The Simon-meatbag has been exposed to trace amounts of G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate. Hopeful Conclusion: Termination would be an effective cure."  
River frowned at the droid, uncertain as to the seriousness of its words and worried for her brother despite the assault of his worry on her mind. Simon had saved her from the Academy and given up his fortune and his life to free her and she couldn't let him die.

"I can kill you with my brain."  
River warned the droid, staring at the machine hard with a disapproving frown while the droid turned to regard her with a seemingly curious tilt to its head.

"Observation: This HK-47's sensors show a lack of adequate Midichlorians within your system for such a feat to be possible. Analysis: The presence of psychic capabilities hints at a connection to the Force, but untrained you are incapable of carrying out your threat. Conclusion: This HK-47 unit is safe from your psychic assault and conditioned by Master to resist rudimentary Force-assaults."

River blinked at the droid in shock, her bluff that had unsettled the ape-man gone wrong so thoroughly was so easily dismissed. Put out by the droid, River glared at the machine, seriously trying to kill it with her brain. Bastila entered shortly after to find River glaring at HK-47 in the _Ebon Hawk's_ common room. Frowning at the girl, Bastila turned to look at HK's unmoving form and rolled her eyes.

"Don't mind HK, River. He has the uncanny ability of his maker to be insufferable at times, but also invaluable."  
River held her glare on HK for another moment before turning to Bastila and smiling brightly at the Jedi. Bastila radiated a warm blue glow that was soothing and her thoughts were carefully shielded behind an invisible wall that River wished everyone had. Her own mind wouldn't be so crowded if that were the case.

"The construct derailed my strategy to keep the Ape-man docile. If the man-called Jayne knows I can't kill him with my brain he will no longer fear the girl."  
Bastila frowned at River, trying not to be irritated at the girl. Fear was never a good thing.

"Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering..."

River muttered in surprise, turning to stare at Bastila. The Jedi's frown smoothed to a neutral mask and Bastila seated herself beside the young reader, gently touching River's arm. River stiffened at the touch, her eyes wide as they darted to the gloves Bastila wore on her hands before she relaxed at their color. Brown gloves weren't as bad as blue.  
"Ancient rhetoric told from old fools who hide in towers of metal and glass and look out across the galaxy with fear of its reality and scope."  
Darth Revan had said such a thing once, after his initial invasion of the Republic and Bastila frowned at the angry look on the girl's face as she mimicked Revan's voice.

"Just because the source of the knowledge is not infallible does not mean the teachings are flawed. I saw in your mind you touched Revan's... I can also sense that he is near and- and very angry about something."The Jedi Knight frowned in concern at what she had sensed from Revan and turned her eyes to the bag that Canderous had recovered with Revan's belongings. River followed Bastila's gaze and tilted her head curiously, standing gracefully and practically floating to the bag while Bastila frowned at the girl and stood slowly, with the easy grace of a trained fighter and a Jedi. River knelt by the bag and opened it, snatching the red and black mask crafted from Mandalorian metal from the top and turning it in her small hands curiously.

"Threat: Release the Master's mask, meatbag."  
River ignored HK, running her fingers along the red lines painted into the black mask and shivering as she placed the mask back in place. Bastila waved her hand and HK-47's eyes dimmed as he went in standby mode. There was no sense getting the poor girl hurt because the droid was overprotective of his creator.

"The mask was his face during war. Black for his soul and red for the blood he shed. He wore it as a shield over his heart. Hardened his feelings in the metal of his people."  
The reader looked troubled briefly at the sheer scope of violence she could sense from the simple image of the mask. When she'd touched Revan's mind in the Academy and saw his thoughts they were on such a grand scale, so utterly different from what she had known all her life and what the Academy had forced onto her that she had been comforted by how surreal it was. It was a refuge from the pain and it played out like an epic novel.  
The reality of what Revan had been and what he had done had been understood on a rational level of River's mind, but to look into the mask and see the face of a Dark Lord of the Sith that had killed more beings than existed in the entire verse was not a surreal experience. It was just downright creepifying.

"A contradiction. Hero and Villain. Savior and Conqueror. Light and Dark. Master and Slave..."  
The last part was said with an angry expression on the young reader's face and she reached past the mask to lift out one of Revan's lightsabers. Bastila stiffened from where she stood, using the Force to hold the weapon's switch in a locked position so River wouldn't accidentally skewer herself. River stared at the weapon with a frown, its black hilt gleaming in the lighting as she balanced the weapon in her small hand.  
"Enslaved. Buried beneath a wall of light and left to rot. Dressed him up like a gorram little tin soldier. Cut into his brain and filled it with their intentions! They weren't his! He shouldn't have carried them!"  
The anger of the Sith Lord within Revan had touched River as well as the memories and the reader saw what was done to Revan by the Jedi. Instead of torture and conditioned responses and needles in the eyes like the Academy, the Jedi had taken his scattered thoughts and pushed them back, buried them beneath barriers of light that scorched the darkness and made a slave of the man. She could relate.

"A pawn to the Council."  
Bastila shivered at the girl's words being mimicked in her own voice when she had fallen and Revan had saved her. Swallowing back the lump in her throat that formed at the thought of what was done to Revan, Bastila pushed aside her own anger at the thought. She had been told his mind was too badly damaged for the Sith Lord to ever resurface, but he had and it was apparent that someone had forced the Mindwipe and implanted personality onto the man. Even as the Prodigal Knight had controlled Revan, the man he had been remained and Bastila stared at the glare River cast her with a sigh.

"The Council had their reasons... and all who played a conscious part in that are dead and gone."  
River shook her head in denial, glaring in the direction of the Exile's sleeping form.

"The librarian wore white to keep away the darkness, but she could only cover the darkness within her, not repel it."

It took Bastila a moment to realize the girl was talking about Atris, who as far as she knew was dead on Telos' surface.

"Do you mean-"  
River cut off Bastila, her small fingers running along Revan's weapon as her wide brown eyes stared at the patterns etched into the hilt.

"The Death of the Force... the Destroyer of Worlds let the librarian linger. It would have been a cruelty to kill a broken doll, but the doll wore a mask. One of pain and remorse. The mask is falling away, chipped away piece by piece..."  
River turned her attention back to the mask and Bastila relaxed slightly when the young reader returned Revan's weapon to the bag. River ran her fingers along the dents and scratches in the surface of the faded mask's paint and trembled.

"The Lord of Revenge is strong... but broken. The Prodigal Knight balances him but he is the one holding the strings. The puppet of the Council is his puppet now."  
River frowned and made a disgusted face as she stuck her tongue out at the mask and dropped it back into the bag.

"He paints such masterpieces... but his art is death and war."  
The reader said to the Jedi before standing gracefully and dancing away from the hold and out into Miranda's setting sun. Bastila watched the girl go with a frown, reaching along the bond she shared with Revan unconsciously in her worry.

"Girl's ain't right in the head. You saw what them Alliance _hundans_ did to her. She's a mite unpredictable... but she ain't been wrong."  
Bastila glanced sharply at the man that entered the _Ebon Hawk_ with a slow and easy stride. The Jedi spotted a beautiful woman dressed in a fine gown at the man's shoulder and offered a small bow of respect to both. If nothing else the man in the long brown coat was a soldier at one point and the woman carried herself with a grace and poise that only Senators and Jedi Masters could match. The Jedi touched a device on her wrist, ignoring the way Malcolm Reynolds tensed and dropped a hand to his pistol.

"Just her translator. Might be a good idea to get your hand off that cannon."  
Mal turned in surprise, not used to people being able to sneak up on him and came face to face with a beautiful young woman with short red hair and dressed in a set of green and brown robes. The woman smirked at Mal and nodded to Inara before moving past them and turning off the translator protocols of her wrist-communicator that lay just beneath her Mandalorian wrist-gauntlet.

"I feel we can trust these people, Mira. The fleet should be arriving-"  
Mal cut off Bastila and Mira's conversation when the Jedi Knight's translator offered a cultured and very British-sounding English version of Bastila's Galactic Basic for the Captain of _Serenity._

"Hold on a second there, lady. You sayin you got a _fleet_ coming this way?"  
Taking in the look of worry on Mal's face, Bastila made a signal to Mira to wake the others and she moved to stand before Mal and Inara, glancing at the Companion for a moment before she turned her full attention to Mal.

"Captain Reynolds is it? I hold the rank of General within the Republic military. This gives me command of all units not directly associated with the Republic Navy. I hold command over the fighter squadrons and the soldiers on those ships but not the ships themselves. The only Jedi to ever hold Supreme Command over the Republic fleet was... well, my husband, Revan Qel-Droma. I am unsure what you know of River Tam's past but somewhere in the... Academy that mutilated that poor girl's mind she encountered Revan. He was on the edge of Republic space in search of a danger that he sensed. He would say very little over the subject but I believe he was speaking of the Reavers."  
Mal nodded, glancing in concern at Inara as the Companion shivered at the mention of Reavers. He'd have offered comfort if he wasn't so scared himself.

"Reavers is what I am worried about, ma'am. There's a whole fleet of them, dozens of their ships just floating around in the space around Miranda, maybe hundreds. You probably saw that debris patch?"  
At Bastila's nod, Mal continued.

"Well, Reavers as you saw in that recording ain't exactly dumb. We managed to get by them, but if a fleet just shows up..."  
Inara picked up where Mal left off, her hand resting on one of Mal's crossed arms.

"What Captain Reynolds is trying to say is there is a danger to your people if they-"  
Bastila raised a hand to cut off Inara, causing the Companion to frown. The gesture was rude, but she doubted the Jedi meant it to be.

"Your technology is inferior in every way but one. Your terraforming technology is amazing. Centuries beyond anything the Republic could make. Even so the military tech I have seen so far is... archaic at best. Ancient is the better word..."  
Not liking the dismissive tone in the Jedi's voice, Mal dropped a hand to his gun again out of habit and did a bit of posturing while Inara rolled her eyes in annoyance at his masculine display.  
"Lady you ain't never dealt with Reavers. They ain't men. They're wild, insane. They come at you and they don't stop till they get what they want and what they want is to eat you, torture you and rape you to death or make you like them. There ain't no-"  
Bastila's stare and Inara's hand tightening on Mal's arm caused the Captain to stop his speech.

"Captain Reynolds. The fleet we are the vanguard for consists of a third of the Republic's surviving ships from the Jedi Civil War and the Mandalorian Wars as well as a contingent of Mandalorian warriors and elements of the Onderonian Royal Navy and the Telosian Security Force. Soldiers from across the entire galaxy are coming at the head of nearly a million ships. Each ship holds an average of six thousand crewmen and soldiers. That makes close to six billion soldiers that are veterans of some of the bloodiest and most violent conflicts the galaxy has seen in the last two decades. We would have ten times the numbers if not for the Jedi Civil War and twice again that number if not for the Mandalorian war."  
Mal's mouth moved but no words came out. Inara, trained to observe body language and read people saw no deceit in the young woman's speech and she took a moment to recover from her own shock.

"I- it is hard to fathom the numbers..."  
Inara said as gracefully as she could, her beautiful features expressionless, though a line formed between her brows. Bastila crossed her arms, looking annoyed.

"Revan was the leader of the Sith Empire and the Revanchists. He was labeled a traitor to the Republic and the Jedi Order for crimes against sentient life. He is responsible for the deaths of over one trillion sentient beings. He was a monster and a tyrant as a Sith Lord but a great and good man as a Jedi. He disappeared over three years ago in this area of space. His belongings were recovered on this very world and Miss Tam says he is a captive of the Academy and the Alliance. When he left he was a good man... but he carried a monster within him. You cannot begin to fathom the powers the Force opens up to us. I am shocked he was so easily captured... but I recall a time when I myself was apprehended with apparent ease on Taris. If he is the Jedi and not the Sith Lord we may yet be able to salvage your _verse_ but if Revan is the Lord of Revenge again... there is no telling what he will do to your little systems."  
Mal looked a little angered at the thought of Revan being such a monster and confused as well. The young woman before him claimed to be the monster's wife yet was warning them off of him.

"How- what?"  
Mal shook his head, casting a glance to Inara. The Companion seemed to read Mal's thoughts and rolled her eyes at his eloquence.

"I believe Captain Reynolds is confused as to why you are... married to such a man."  
Not wanting to explain it all, Bastila turned to a nearby computer console and took a datapad, downloading all of the information; classified or no on Revan Qel-Droma and handed the information to Mal.

"It will translate into English or Chinese text for you when you connect it to your ship's computer. It's a simple process to link the console and the datapad and it will give you a generalized review of the man I married and perhaps even why I married him. Revan was... larger than life. A hero as much as a Villain. He walked on a path filled with shadows and light, along the knife's edge between good and evil. There was always a reason for his violence though... It wasn't always apparent but... there was always a very good reason."  
Looking a bit skeptical and annoyed, Mal frowned down at the datapad before nodding to Bastila and leaving. Between Wash and Kaylee he figured they could run the datapad and Mal was curious as to why the strange woman was so enthralled with a man who sounded about as bad as Hitler from Earth-that-was.

Inara lingered on the _Ebon Hawk_, regarding Bastila Shan with a curious stare. The Jedi returned the stare blankly, a pinch of irritation showing on her brow.

"I don't ask your understanding. Revan is my husband and the father of my daughter. He is a good man, despite the evil is he capable of and he was pardoned by the Jedi Order, the Republic Senate and the Onderonian Royal Court. So long as he is not actively leading the remnant Sith Empire, Revan is not the evil man he once was in their eyes and he will never be that monster in mine. He- he pulled me from the edge of my own darkness and despair and saved me like he saved so many others... Re- Revan saved so many more than he killed, you have to understand that."  
Inara nodded indulgently, keeping her expression consoling but also neutral. She could tell the woman was distraught over her husband and she chose to reserve judgement on Revan until she saw the information on the datapad.  
"How powerful are your communications systems?"  
The Companion asked the Jedi curiously, her brown eyes locking with Bastila's gray. Bastila simply rose a brow and flicked on the console beside her, bringing up a holo of the entire galaxy. A small blue indicator showed where the _Ebon Hawk_ was and a mass of green dots approaching the blue signal showed Inara the incoming Republic and Onderonian fleet.

"This world near the edge of the galactic core is Coruscant. The Capitol of the Republic and a city-world like Taris was before the Sith bombardment. We can communicate in real time with the space you see here. It is possible by a series of hyperspace drones and transponders that carry the signals to the destination from the source. As I said to Captain Reynolds before. We are much more advanced than your people."  
A plan began to form in Inara's head and she thanked Bastila before moving off to follow Mal back to _Serenity_. She had so many questions for the _Ebon Hawk's_ crew, but there was so much to be done and if she knew Mal that would be something either amazingly heroic or incredibly stupid. There was a possibility it would be both and the Companion spared a glance over her shoulder to see a man about Jayne's size and build watching her from the bottom of the _Hawk's_ ramp with a weapon that looked like it could shoot down _Serenity _in his arms and a silver mask and armor obscuring his features. Turning away quickly, Inara reached _Serenity_ faster than was necessary and let a breath of relief out when she stepped into the cargo hold.

"Mal getting any dumb ideas?"  
Jayne asked from his position on the catwalks. Inara glanced at the mercenary with a scowl, moving on without a word to her shuttle. Shrugging off the callous dismissal from the Companion, Jayne continued his watch of the cargo bay, his fingers tightening around Vera as he clenched his jaw and tried to ignore the fact that they were set down on a blackrock surrounded by thirty million corpses.

Mr Universe tensed when one of the Alliance Marines _guarding_ him approached the Operative. Keeping his expression casual, the Cortex hacker jerked in surprise when the soldier came to his keyboard and began typing in a series of commands on what looked like a _very_ high end Alliance code. The Operative frowned at the soldier's break in formation and approached the man calmly, studying the way the marine held himself before he lowered his hand to the hilt of his sword.

"Soldier, what are you doing?"  
Revan said nothing, typing in the last bit of code before his security clearance courtesy of Blue Sun and their associates within Alliance Parliament showed that he was a class one Operative attached to Blue Sun's Blue Hand Agency. The Operative turned his eyes to the screen, his hand falling away from his sword as he frowned at Revan.

"Why would they send another Operative to assist me? I have all of the training and resources needed to apprehend the Tam Subject and silence her."  
Revan slowly lifted his helmet from his head and turned his cold brown eyes to the Operative, merely answering the other man's question with silence. The Operative lowered his head for a moment before nodding to himself and pulling out his sword. Offering the weapon to Revan, the Operative knelt before Revan and waited with the sword held out.

"I ask to die by the blade. As a man."  
Revan calmly took the Alliance Operative's weapon with respectful care, testing the weapon's near-perfect balance with a critical and professional eye.

"Men die on their feet, not their knees."  
Revan said calmly, using the Force to lift the Operative into the air. The soldiers around the room tensed, but stood down as Revan released the Operative.  
"That was... a first..."  
The Operative stated with a frown, watching as Revan absently swung his sword in intricate and unfamiliar patterns that were... practical, even if they weren't a proper martial art. The weapon was handed back to the Operative and the man accepted with a frown, his eyes narrowing.

"The orders were for you to execute me, not to assist me."

Revan crossed his arms calmly, taking a casual stance and smirked slowly at the Operative. The Operative felt some unease at the man's unexplained abilities and his demeanor and allowed a frown to show on his face. Revan took the opening and spoke in a calm, slightly amused tone.

"How would you like to make a world without sin?"


	8. Chapter 7: Complications

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 7: Complications

**Ten minutes after the Miranda Broadwave via the **_**Ebon Hawk's **_**Communications Array**

The Alliance Operative stood stiffly in the center of Mr Universe's control room, the squad of Alliance Marines having lost their firm battle-stances as they stood about, speaking quietly amongst themselves in a blatant break of protocol. What he once would have glowered at and punished, the Operative ignored. He could hardly blame the soldier's lack of composure. After witnessing the horrifying recording of the Miranda disaster, the Operative could not think straight. His calm was slipping and his training was failing him in the face of such a tragedy. Thirty million Alliance citizens murdered by their own government. The creation of the scourge that was the Reavers. They couldn't be the only crimes Parliament and Blue Sun were behind. He knew enough of the Academy to be disgusted by it, but his duty had been to Parliament.

"It can't be true..."  
The Operative's voice was a broken whisper, a haunted light glowing in his dark eyes as he lost his faith in the leadership of the Alliance. Revan Qel-Droma had not moved since the recording had flashed across the monitors and the Operative started when the supposed Blue Sun Operative finally spoke.

"Miranda is very real. The authenticity of this recording is unquestionable. Your technicians have already confirmed the clearance of the woman on the recording as well as her identity. She was labeled as Missing in Action over a decade ago, a period of time that coincides with the appearance of the Reavers and the loss of the Miranda colony. I have walked on that dead world, Operative. Believe me when I tell you what you've seen is only a whisper of the horrors spawned of that blackrock."  
The Alliance Operative frowned at Revan, his eyes narrowing as he took in the man's accent and his strange abilities. There was more to the Blue Sun Operative than he could read into through body language and with a glance at the Alliance Marines, the Operative made his decision.

"Those behind Miranda are guilty of criminal negligence, illegal human experimentation and mass murder. They are the minds behind the Alliance, the minds behind one of its most successful corporations and those who sign our paychecks and give us orders. Did any of you sign up to join with scum when you enlisted? To be paid in blood money?"  
Revan had beaten the Operative to the proverbial punch, his cultured voice droning out the truth of the Alliance's leadership.

"The Reavers"  
Revan gestured absently to the monitors as they replayed the message again and again. Whoever was broadcasting the wave was making sure to repeat it enough times that it couldn't be jammed.  
"The Miranda Disaster."  
Revan clenched his hands to fists. He'd been on Miranda and breathed the air. It was such a serene world, beautiful if not for the thirty million rotting dead and the lack of any life beyond plants. He'd done and seen worse in his time, but the scale of such a thing in a world as small as that of the _verse_ was horrifying and Revan decided to use it to his advantage.  
"These are things that have already come to pass... but this-"  
Revan paused to hold up a small datacrystal. The information on the device would likely lead to a civil war and the mysterious deaths of many of the Corporate leadership of Blue Sun and members of Parliament... but that was his goal. He wasn't about to go through the proper channels that a Jedi would have to administer justice. Trials had a way of being corrupted by the powerful and if nothing else; those behind Miranda and the Academy had power.

"This holds a crime that you all know of, yet don't. You've only seen the mission. The target. River Tam is no longer a threat to the people of the Alliance. She is a threat to the established criminals behind these heinous crimes and you have killed in their name to bring this girl, this seventeen year old child back to their hands to be _raped_ and _tortured _and _cut_ as if Reavers were tearing at her."  
Revan glanced at Mr Universe, seeing that the man's fingers were lingering near his keyboard and that he had likely been recording him. Nodding to the man to continue, Revan turned his attention back to the soldiers in the room with him.

"You have suffered their laws your entire lives. Sweat and bled for them and their lies. You have become a tool for their crimes, an extension of their own vile bodies to spread their filth across the verse. Would you continue to do so in the name of men who act as Reavers not because of the damage done to them by the Pax, but because of their greed and their lust for power?"  
Stepping over to Mr Universe, Revan handed the Cortex hacker the datacrystal and offered a simple order. One that would change the verse and the very foundations of the Alliance. Taking the crystal with unecessary care, Mr Universe stared at the device and swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat.

"Broadcast it."  
Revan ordered, not even looking at the man. Mr Universe complied, unhindered by the soldiers and Operatives in the room and a set of encoded files flashed across his screens that dated back to Earth that was. Stunned, the hacker's fingers flew across the keyboard resting in his lap and he felt bile rising in his throat when he saw the file on the Academy. Hundreds upon hundreds of children were shown being tortured and _conditioned_ because of their abilities and the room was silent as the Alliance soldiers and the Operative moved closer to the screen, staring at the hundreds of images with expressions that ran from disbelief, disgust and rage. Only Revan's face remained unmoved and when his own image appeared before them, all of the soldiers turned to stare at the supposed Blue Sun Operative. Respect, shock and pity filled several eyes while others took in the former Sith Lord warily.

"Can this be jammed?"  
Revan asked, seeing that the ships in orbit had picked up the broadwave that Mr Universe was sending out of the information. Mr Universe seemed to jump slightly before he shook his head and breathed out an answer, too stunned to be excited over all of the violence and classified information that had just been sent out from _his_ moon.

"You can't stop the signal, man."  
Silence continued to reign on Mr Universe's moon, the only noise that of the men's breathing and the horrifying recordings flashing across the screens.

On _Serenity_ Wash frowned as the Cortex console on the bridge activated, his frown deepening when the information being broadcast from Mr Universe's moon became available to anyone with a Cortex connection. The pilot couldn't look away as the horrible secrets and crimes of Blue Sun and the Alliance flashed across the screen. A rock formed in his stomach and moved with painfully slow steps towards the bottom of his guts and Hoban tasted bile in his throat when he recognized a much younger River in one of the recordings being cut into with needles as she screamed and begged for mercy. The rest of the crew slowly filtered into the bridge, their eyes watching the information play for what felt like an eternity before the screen darkened and shifted to a man in an Alliance Marine's combat armor and uniform. A short but powerful speech came from the man and the Operative that had been tracking _Serenity _was clearly visible in the recording, his eyes locked with the speaking soldier's. Revan's words from only minutes before on Mr Universe's moon were replayed on top of the information that he had taken from the Academy's databanks and River's slightly crazed expression at seeing herself being tortured cleared when she saw the face of the soldier. She'd only touched his mind for a few minutes, but it had given her the strength of clarity that was so fleeting to her since she'd gone to the Academy and the young Reader and assassin smiled brightly at the image.

"The Lord of Revenge!"  
Pointing at the image of the Alliance Marine, River clapped her hands happily, pulling the attention of the rest of _Serenity's_ crew. Footsteps echoed along the deckplates of the Firefly-class transport and hands went to weapons before the sight of Bastila Shan put the tense crew at ease. Slightly.

"He was once called that, yes. He was also a great and powerful Jedi Knight. The Light guided the Prodigal Knight to end the war the Dark Lord he had been began. I haven't seen him for nearly four years..."  
Bastila's voice wavered when she saw Revan being experimented on in the recording. Someone was controlling what was being broadcast and whoever it was, wherever they were; was with Revan. Unlike many of the children in the recordings though, Revan did not beg or cry out in pain during his _conditioning. _The former Dark Lord of the Sith simply endured the treatment in silence, occasionally smirking at some private joke or sneering.

"I can't ask you to help me. You and your crew has done more than enough to right the wrong here, but he is my husband and the love of my life. I need to go to him and I need to know where this transmission is coming from. Your communications system is so radically different from the Holonet that we can't break through the coding in the signal."  
Wash frowned at _Serenity's_ scanners, his blue eyes widening as he paled.

"I don't think its gonna matter finding this guy. Looks like its coming from Mr Universe's moon. Signal's strong and we're not the only ones hearing it..."  
Mal glanced down at Wash with a half-frown, a glare coming to his eyes as he tried to redirect the anger he felt at what he'd just seen on top of Miranda.  
"What the Hell are you on about, Wash?"  
Mal asked in a tight voice, his blue eyes shining darkly as he glared at the still-active Cortex connection. Wash let out a slow breath while River answered for him.

"They wouldn't lay down..."  
Mal glanced at River, annoyed at the Reader's vague speech patterns.

"She means Reavers, Mal."  
Jayne answered, looking surprised himself that he knew what River meant. The Reader glanced at him with a half-smile before it fell and she glanced back to the recording of Revan.

"The secret was too loud, burned up the girl's brain. Not a secret anymore, but its still too loud."  
Wash decided to save everyone the trouble and translated the information the scanners were relaying to him.

"Reavers got the signal same as us, that massive fleet we passed through on the way here? They're making a run for Mr Universe's moon at full burn."  
Mal's jaw clenched and he moved to the co-pilot's seat, flicking several switches on the console before the Cortex connection cleared and the slightly shell-shocked face of Mr Universe appeared. The Cortex hacker turned distracted eyes to Mal and mumbled a greeting before his eyes moved back to his monitors and the wealth of crimes against humanity and classified information that filled his screens.

"There ain't no time for whatever it is you're doing, Mr Universe. You got Reavers coming at ya."  
Mr Universe glanced disinterestedly at Mal for a moment before he waved the man off, typing something into the keyboard. Almost instantly, the Alliance Operative's grim face appeared and Mal took an involuntary step back in shock before anger filled him.

"What in the Hell are you doing on this line? You're there ain't you? Its not gorram enough that you kill all our friends, now you gotta go after the only man this side of the verse can let out a secret like this to protect them _hundans_ back in the core?"  
A muscle twitched in the Operative's jaw and he opened his mouth to speak before closing it. Glancing off to his side, the Operative nodded to something said offscreen and stepped aside. The face of Revan Qel-Droma filled the screen, his Alliance bodyarmor visible, though he lacked the helmet that lay on the floor near Mr Universe's chair. Revan's dark brown eyes flickered briefly over Mal's face before they turned to the rest of _Serenity's_ visible crew.  
"I know I may look like an Alliance Marine at the moment but I can assure you I am not, Captain. My name is-"  
Revan's confident and likely rehearsed speech came to a jarring halt and he choked slightly, his eyes widening when his wife's features took command of the Cortex connection.

"Erm. Bastila? Its- You look good, love."  
Revan smiled nervously at Bastila's dark expression. The Jedi Knight's gray eyes flickered over his features a moment before hardening into twin and unmoved stones and the former General couldn't quite supress a shudder as his wife spoke to him directly for the first time in nearly four years.

"Four years. Four _bloody_ years and that is all you have to say to me, Revan! I should very well leave you to your fate you insufferable bastard! You left me! Your left our- our daughter, you left the Republic and the Jedi and even those bloody Sith you created and for what!? Is your conscience clear now, husband? Has trying to destroy your family and your own life made up for the countless ones Darth Revan claimed?"  
Revan didn't avert his eyes. Instead of showing shame for his actions or cringing away from his wife's anger or simply meeting it with anger he responded in the only way he could after what he'd heard.

"You're so cute when you're angry, love. Your nose scrunches up just like a Kinrath pup's!"  
Revan smiled fondly at the flushed and incredulous face on the screen before him, his laughter joining that of his wife's when she finally overcame her shock. It was why they worked so well. The bond they shared made it nearly impossible for them to be seperated completely and despite his actions, Revan loved his wife and his then unborn daughter when he had left them. It was important for his own sanity to make peace with the Dark Lord within his mind and knowing that he would never hurt his wife with his own hands, even if they were controlled by the Lord of Revenge and not the Prodigal Knight was the true purpose behind his self-imposed exile.

"You were right though, Bastila."  
Revan began in a hesitant voice. The Jedi Knight frowned after she regained her composure, her brow furrowing slightly in concern as she turned her full focus on her husband's features. She could see he had changed and it wasn't just because of the Academy. She could sense the Dark Lord, just as she had on the brigde of Darth Revan's flagship years before and while she had expected it, it still sent a chill down Bastila's spine.

"I couldn't win."  
The voice was not that of the Prodigal Knight, but the Lord of Revenge and Bastila started at the tone. Equally pissed off and amused. It was the same tone a Mandalorian had when they got beaten in a battle circle by a superior opponent. One part respect and one part resentment. A decidedly neutral emotion passed over Revan's features for a moment before he turned a curious glance to his left.

"Oh..."  
Revan stated with a grimace, his eyes flickering between the Alliance Operative and his wife.

"You called here for a reason I take it? Aside from wanting to stare at my handsome face?"  
The sarcasm in Revan's voice was apparent and Bastila felt a smile tug at the corner of her lips. She'd missed her husband's sarcasm as much as she loathed it.

"That signal you sent out brought a lot of attention to y'all. Not the kind a body'd like, I reckon you got inside four hours afore you get your space filled with a bunch of rape-happy skin-eating _hundans_."  
The Operative blanched at Malcolm Reynold's warning. He'd proven himself an enemy to the man, but the former Browncoat was going out of his way to warn them, even if revenge was an attractive alternative. Revan seemed to be having a wordless conversation in his own mind so the Operative took control of the situation.

"Thank you Captain Reynolds. I will be certain to have the battle group prepared for their arrival... I- I think I speak for all of us here when I say it is time to start righting some of the wrongs we've done."  
Mal glared at the Operative, saying nothing to the man before he reached out to terminate the connection. The Captain's entire body froze, an unseen force holding him in place and the former Browncoat stared incredulously at his own unmoving hand before he was bodily pulled back by a woman half his size.  
"Revan listen to me. I can feel what you're thinking and its- well, its deplorable. Just let the others handle the fighting."  
Revan rolled his eyes at his wife, crossing his arms in annoyance as he glared sullenly at the screen before him.

"I can kill quite a few of those ships before they even reach the fleet, dear. I think its pretty much a sacred calling to kill... Reavers. Disgusting creatures, let me say."

Bastila's face carefully lost expression and Revan cringed mentally before flinching under his wife's stare.

"You **know** I wasn't talking about the Reavers, Revan. Or did you forget the bond we share? Leave Blue Sun to us, Revan. We have a fleet the size of the one you took from Malachor V coming and it will be here within a few short days due to the bloody impossibility of the Hyperspace routes in this region of the galaxy. Leave them to us, Revan."

Taking in a steadying and calming breath, Revan looked down to the ground for a moment before glancing back up into the screen and into his wife's eyes.

"Can I just kill a few of them? Please?"  
Rolling her eyes at her husband's petulant tone, Bastila shook her head and reached out to cut off the connection, offering a warning to her husband before she killed the link.

"Blue Sun and the Alliance will pay for their crimes. We will not lower ourselves to their level, Revan. Besides, the prison colony on Kessel is hardly a vacation resort."  
Mollified slightly at the thought of those behind the Academy and Miranda suffering on Kessel, Revan relaxed and nodded to his wife before the Cortex connection went black. Without pausing, Revan glanced towards the Operative and offered his own sollution to the problem.  
"I still say we kill them all. As violently and as painfully as the situations allow. Their continued existance is an affront to those they made suffer. Are we in agreement?"  
Knowing that only a handful would actually survive the chaos the broadcasts from Miranda and Mr Universe's moon would unleash upon the verse the Operative smiled slightly at Revan, nodding his agreement to his companion's sentiment. Trials were a waste of money and time better spent repairing the damage done by those responsible for such attrocities and a blade would offer a more direct form of justice. Not a hero's justice or one of a morally upstanding Jedi Knight, but one that a trained assassin and a former Dark Lord of the Sith could agree upon.

"You reap what you sew."  
The Operative said quietly to himself, smiling calmly as he motioned the Marines with him to make preparations to meet the Reavers in orbit.


End file.
